China's retail sales, industrial output up in August

A bird's-eye view of the central business district in Beijing. [Photo/VCG]

China's economic fundamentals remained sound as indicators such as industrial output and retail sales growth picked up in August, said the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

Retail sales increased by 9 percent year-on-year last month, 0.2 percentage point higher than in July, the NBS data showed.

The industrial output posted steady growth in the same month, up by 6.1 percent year-on-year and accelerating by 0.1 percentage point over July, the data showed.

Fixed-asset investment growth eased to 5.3 percent in the January-August period, 0.2 percentage points lower than in the first seven months.

The urban surveyed unemployment rate was 5 percent in August, down by 0.1 percentage points compared with in July, the NBS said.

Mao Shengyong, spokesman of the bureau, said at a news briefing that August data showed the country's economic fundamentals remained sound and efforts should be made to further promote high-quality development of the Chinese economy.