China's progress on business resumption

BEIJING, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Amid further containment of COVID-19, China is powering ahead in returning to work and resuming business and production. The following are the latest facts and figures:

-- China's economic activities continued to normalize as the latest data on industrial output, retail sales and investment showed across-the-board improvements, but the recovery still faces uncertainties and challenges from the global spread of the novel coronavirus.

The industrial sector was among the quickest to rebound from the impact of the virus, with the value-added industrial output returning to growth last month, the first expansion since the virus outbreak as factory activities recovered amid easing containment measures.

The value-added industrial output went up 3.9 percent year on year in April, rebounding from the 1.1-percent drop in March and 13.5-percent slump seen in the first two months of the year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Friday.

-- China's Index of Services Production fell 4.5 percent year on year in April, narrowing from 9.1 percent in March, as economic activities continued to recover, data from the NBS showed.

In the first four months of this year, the reading dropped 9.9 percent year on year, recovering from the 11.7-percent fall in the first quarter.

Modern services production logged steady growth, with the sub-index for information transmission, software and information technology services edging up 5.2 percent year on year in April, and that for financial services and real estate grew 4.4 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.

-- Southwest China's Guizhou Province is reopening more schools from May 15 to 30 now that the COVID-19 epidemic in the country has been subdued.

The specific reopening time for primary schools and kindergartens are to be set by the governments of cities or prefectures where the schools are located, according to the provincial education department.