BEIJING - China’s retail sales growth was the weakest since the crash caused by Covid while investment slumped further, underlining growing risks to the economy after several months of deterioration.

Retail sales rose just 1.3 per cent in November from a year ago – the slowest figures on record, outside the pandemic. That was worse than every estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts, whose median forecast was for the growth pace to stay at 2.9 per cent for a second month.