Persistently sluggish demand has raised the spectre of wide-scale deflation amid mounting local government debt and an ailing housing market

Retail sales rose in June - the fourth successive month of gains -  supporting the view that rising consumption and easing China lockdowns helped the economy return to growth

The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 50.2 in June from 49.6 in May, China's National Bureau of Statistics said

The official PPI rise followed a 8.0% increase in April, and was in line with forecasts in a Reuters poll. It was the weakest reading since March 2021

Profits rose 4.2% year-on-year, the slowest rate since April 2020, to 734 billion yuan ($115.9 billion), compared with a 9% gain in November

China has faced increasingly frequent Covid-19 cases in recent months and its strict zero-Covid policy poses challenges to growth