BEIJING, Sept 15, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - China's industrial production and retail sales growth slumped further last month, official data showed Monday, missing forecasts and highlighting prolonged challenges in the world's second-largest economy.

Beijing has struggled to fully reignite its economy since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the country's once booming property sector mired in a debt crisis as headwinds on exports mount.

Industrial production was up 5.2 percent year-on-year in August, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the slowest pace since the same month last year.

The figure missed the 5.6 percent growth forecasted by a Bloomberg survey of economists.

NBS data also showed that retail sales climbed 3.4 percent year-on-year last month -- the slowest since November and falling short of a Bloomberg prediction of 3.8 percent.

Consumer sentiment in China has slumped in recent years, dragging on spending and threatening Beijing's official growth target for this year of around five percent.

New residential property prices fell year-on-year during August in 65 out of 70 cities surveyed by the NBS, data also showed Monday.

"There is still much instability and uncertainty in the external environment, and (China's) economic performance still faces numerous risks and challenges," NBS chief economist Fu Linghui told a press conference Monday.

Trade tensions between China and the United States have been on a rollercoaster ride in 2025, with both sides slapping escalating tariffs on each other.

Officials from the two countries on Sunday kicked off the latest round of trade talks in Madrid, where they are set to thrash out disputes over hefty US tariffs and other key issues.