China's retail and industrial data lifts economy, but real estate drags

Official economic data out of China for the January and February period came in better than expected. Industrial output rose 7%, higher than the 5% forecast by economists in a Reuters poll, and sped up from the 6.8% growth in December, according to data published Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics. Meanwhile, retail sales grew 5.5%, better than the 5.2% predicted by analysts but slowed from the previous period's 7.4%. Advertisement Still, the country's troubled real estate sector continues to weigh on the economy: Investment in property development fell 9%. Commercial real estate sales are also down double-digit percentages….