Workers talk near a tunnel boring machine at Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Ltd on Oct 15, 2020. (FANG ZHE / XINHUA)

BEIJING – China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 5% year-on-year in October, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Tuesday.

The growth rate was 0.2 percentage points faster than that of the third quarter, the bureau said.

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China's fixed-asset investment went up 5.8% year-on-year in the first 10 months of this year, data from the NBS showed

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of large enterprises each with an annual main business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about $2.84 million).

Fixed-asset investment up 5.8% in first 10 months

China's fixed-asset investment went up 5.8% year-on-year in the first 10 months of this year, data from the NBS showed.

Fixed-asset investment from January to October totaled 47.15 trillion yuan (about $6.7 trillion), the bureau said in a statement.

The growth slowed from a 5.9-percent increase posted in the first three quarters of the year. In October, the investment picked up 0.12% from September.

During the Jan -Oct period, fixed-asset investment from the private sector increased 1.6% from a year earlier to 25.84 trillion yuan.

Investment in infrastructure and manufacturing gained 8.7% and 9.7% year-on-year during the period, respectively. Investment in property development went down 8.8% year-on-year in the period.

China's high-tech industries continued to see a stellar expansion of fixed-asset investment in the first 10 months, with that in the high-tech manufacturing and services sectors jumping by 23.6% and 14% year-on-year, respectively, NBS data showed.

Specifically, investment in the sub-sectors of electronic and communication equipment manufacturing and research and design services soared 28.7% and 22.5%, respectively.

China has rolled out a series of pro-investment measures this year. For instance, local governments nationwide have expedited the use of special-purpose bonds to catalyze investment.

Over 3.54 trillion yuan worth of new special-purpose local government bonds were issued in the first three quarters of this year, data from the Ministry of Finance showed.

Retail sales up 0.6% in first 10 months

According to the data, China's retail sales of consumer goods went up 0.6% year-on-year in the first 10 months.

In the first 10 months, China's total retail sales of consumer goods stood at about 36.05 trillion yuan (about $5.11 trillion).

Online consumption continued to shore up retail sales. In the first 10 months, online sales of physical goods climbed 7.2% year-on-year, up 1.1 percentage points from that in the January-September period.

Retail sales in the rural area climbed up 0.8% year-on-year during the period, outpacing that of the urban area which registered a 0.5 % year-on-year increase, NBS data showed.

Surveyed urban unemployment rate at 5.5% in October

China's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.5% in October, flat from the September level, said the NBS.

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In the first 10 months of the year, the average surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.6%.

The surveyed unemployment rate among those aged between 25 and 59, which constitute the majority of the labor market, came in at 4.7 percent in October, unchanged from the previous month.

The surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities was 6% last month, NBS data showed.

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The surveyed urban unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of unemployed people who have participated in the employment survey in urban areas, including migrant workers in cities.