Switzerland's seasonally and sport event-adjusted gross domestic product ticked up 0.5% in the first quarter, compared with the prior three-month period, provisional data from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs showed Monday.
The expansion reflects positive contributions from both the industrial and services industries.
Chinese investments in real estate development fell 13.7% year on year to 2.397 trillion yuan between January and April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.Among these were residential investments, which dropped 13.1% to 1.846 trillion yuan from a year earlier.Funds available to real estate development enterprises fell 18.4% year on year to 2.670 trillion yuan.The total construction area declined 12.1% to 545.1 million square meters, while the completed construction area fell 24% to 118.9 million square meters.Meanwhile, the sales area of newly built commercial housing slipped 10.2% to 252.6 million square meters from a year earlier.
China's unemployment rate in April eased to 5.2% from 5.4% in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.The unemployment rate in 31 major cities slipped to 5.2% from 5.3% in the previous month, with the weekly working hours averaged at 48 hours.The unemployment rate for the local labor force was 5.3%, and for the migrant workers and migrant agricultural workers at 5% each.
China's fixed asset investment dropped 1.6% year on year to 14.1 trillion yuan between January and April, excluding rural households, according to Monday data from the National Bureau of Statistics.The latest print was in line with market expectations and reversed a 1.7% rise in the first quarter.Industrial investment rose 2.5% in the January-April period, with mining investment recording the biggest increase with a 11.1% jump from a year earlier.Meanwhile, infrastructure investment during the month climbed 4.3%, with water transport investment jumping the highest with a 28.4% climb, followed by air transport investment, which rose 27.3%.The country's private fixed asset investment between January and April declined 5.2% year on year.