China's economy remained under pressure in the early months of 2019, the industrial activity and consumption data released Thursday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) suggest. The NBS published combined data for the first two months to iron out seasonal volatility caused by annual shifts in the timing of Chinese New Year (CNY). One bright spot is fixed-asset investment(FAI), which rose 6.1% y/y in January and February, beating the 5.9% median in an MNI survey. Investment YTD continued to edge up for the fifth consecutive months from the low of 5.3% seen in the Jan-Aug period last year. --STRONG PROPERTY ... (full story)