BEIJING, Jan 22 (Reuters) - China's annual industrial output growth picked up to 5.7 percent in December from 5.4 percent in November, while growth in retail sales slowed to 19.0 percent from 20.8 percent in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.
That compared with economists' expectations of a 4.6 percent annual rise in industrial output and a 19.6 percent increase in retail sales in December.
Ma Jiantang, commissioner of the NBS, gave the December figure at a news conference. In a statement ahead of the news conference, the statistics agency had given the full-year figures, but left out the December ones. [nBJB000542]
For highlights of Ma's news conference, double-click on [nPEK366557]. (Reporting by Zhou Xin; Editing by Jason Subler and Nick Macfie)