Consumers shop for pet products at an exhibition in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province on Tuesday, the final day of the three-day China (Dalian) Pets Cultural Festival. In 2018, China's pet-related consumption hit 170.8 billion yuan ($24.79 billion ), up 27 percent year-on-year. Photo: VCG

Led by strong industry activity and rising domestic consumption, China posts better-than-expected economic figures in November, showing signs of recovery despite mounting downward pressure from domestic structural reforms and a slowdown in global economic growth.

"With a series of policies gradually taken effect, as well as the concerted efforts of the whole country, we see positive changes in the country's economy," said Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), on Monday.

In November, China's value-added industrial output expanded by 6.2 percent year-on-year. An increase from 4.7 percent in October and also beat the market forecast of 5 percent, according to data released by the NBS on Monday.

Retail sales rose 8 percent year-on-year to 37.28 trillion yuan ($5.34 trillion) from January to November, NBS data showed. 

Online sales were 9.5 trillion yuan from January to November, a year-on-year increase of 16.6 percent, playing a significant role in boosting market sales and driving November retail sales, said Fu.

The better-than-expected industrial figure showed that the Chinese economy is showing signs of recovery, and the economic slowing down has been eased to some extent, Dong Dengxin, director of the Finance and Securities Institute at the Wuhan University of Science and Technology, told the Global Times on Monday.

Meanwhile, employment also showed a stable growth, with a total of 12.79 million people being newly employed in urban areas from January to November, surpassing the annual target of 11 million well in advance of the deadline. The unemployment rate was also maintained at a stable level of 5.1 percent.

Fixed-asset investment grew by 5.2 percent year-on-year to 53.37 trillion yuan from January to November. In particular, investment in basic infrastructure rose 4 percent, while investment in the manufacturing sector was up 2.5 percent and up 10.2 percent in the property sector, according to NBS. 

Agreement on the text of phase one China-US deal will reduce market uncertainty, and bolster market confidence which is beneficial to China, the US and the world, said the NBS spokesperson.

Dong forecasts that positive outcomes from the China-US trade talk is expected to ease the bilateral trade conflicts temporarily and offer a buffer for domestic economic growth, and the economic figures in December would remain relatively stable.