BEIJING—China’s first-quarter retail sales lagged in key coastal economic regions with areas hit by COVID-19 outbreaks showing particular weakness, according to regional data, pointing to further sluggishness in consumption in the second quarter.
China’s two biggest provincial economies—Guangdong province in the south and Jiangsu province near Shanghai—posted retail sales growth of 1.7 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, from a year earlier, according to recent data from local statistics bureaus, below nationwide retail sales growth of 3.3 percent.
Retail sales in Shanghai, China’s most populous city, dropped 3.8 percent as the metropolis battled its most serious COVID-19 outbreak. Cases of the Omicron variant have been reported in the financial powerhouse since March, and the impact is widely expected to be particularly severe in the second quarter after a prolonged city-wide lockdown followed in April.
…