China's retail sales, industrial output up in August

China's economic fundamentals remained sound as indicators such as industrial output and retail sales growth picked up in August, said the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

Retail sales increased by 9 percent year-on-year last month, 0.2 percentage point higher than in July, the NBS data showed.

The industrial output posted steady growth in the same month, up by 6.1 percent year-on-year and accelerating by 0.1 percentage point over July, the data showed.

Fixed-asset investment growth eased to 5.3 percent in the January-August period, 0.2 percentage points lower than in the first seven months.

The urban surveyed unemployment rate was 5 percent in August, down by 0.1 percentage points compared with in July, the NBS said.

Mao Shengyong, spokesman of the bureau, said at a news briefing that August data showed the country's economic fundamentals remained sound and efforts should be made to further promote high-quality development of the Chinese economy.