Chinese retail sales grew more quickly than expected in October, despite fresh curbs to control Covid-19 outbreaks and supply shortages.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed retail sales accelerated despite a resurgence of Covid-19 in the country’s north.

Retail sales rose 4.9 per cent year-on-year in October, beating expectations of 3.5-per-cent growth and following a 4.4-per-cent increase in September.

“Growth will likely weaken in the rest of this year,” Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, told Reuters.

“The Covid outbreak has forced more cities to tighten travel restrictions, which will likely affect the service sector adversely in November. The property sector slowdown is getting worse,” Zhang said, adding this was “the key risk for the macro outlook in the next few quarters.”