The sluggish August data released on Saturday echoed soft bank lending figures on Friday, underscoring the weak growth momentum of the $US18.6 ($A27.7) trillion economy - the world's second-largest - in the third quarter.
Industrial output in August expanded 4.5 per cent year-on-year, slowing from the 5.1 per cent pace in July and marking the slowest growth since March, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Saturday.
That missed expectations for 4.8 per cent growth in a Reuters poll of 37 analysts.
Retail sales and new home prices continued to weaken in China in August. (AP PHOTO)
Retail sales, a key measure of consumption, rose only 2.1 per cent in August despite the summer travel peak, decelerating from a 2.7 per cent increase in July.
Analysts had expected retail sales, which have been anaemic in 2024, to grow 2.5 per cent.
"The momentum is slowing down," ANZ's senior China strategist Xing Zhaopeng said.
"The bottleneck remains domestic demand."
China's oil refinery output fell for a fifth month while crude steel output in August fell 6.1 per cent from July, suggesting disappointing demand.
Faltering Chinese economic activity has already prompted global brokerages to scale back their 2024 China growth forecasts to below the government's official target of about 5.0 per cent.
The economy grew by 4.7 per cent in the second quarter.
"The Q3 GDP is likely to be lower than Q2 based on current data flows," Xing said.
"We expect large-scale stimulus to come soon."
Exports have been a bright spot for China despite increasing trade tensions with some countries. (AP PHOTO)
President Xi Jinping urged authorities on Thursday to strive to achieve the country's annual economic and social development goals, state media reported, amid expectations more steps were needed to bolster a flagging economic recovery.
"As we are already toward the tail-end of the third quarter, time is running low for policymakers to introduce measures to buoy the economy amid numerous headwinds," chief China economist at ING Lynn Song said.
The protracted property slump has led to Chinese consumers cutting back on spending.
Some experts have even proposed distributing shopping vouchers to counter the trend.
Premier Li Qiang said in August the country would focus on stimulating consumption and look at measures to boost household income.
A central bank official said China still has room to lower the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves while it faces some constraints in cutting interest rates.
The one bright spot for China recently has been exports, but analysts are not sure for how long the trend of rising exports will continue, given the increasing trade tensions with some countries and regions.
Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said investors would shift focus and wonder what would happen to growth in 2025.
"Will the tight fiscal policy stance continue into next year, when global growth will likely slow down and put pressure on China's exports?," Zhang said.
