China’s industrial production grew less than expected to 9.3 percent in April in comparison to Reuters analysts’ estimate of 9.5 percent, indicating a persisting volatility in the economy, while the retail sales data for the month grew 12.8 percent year-on-year in April in-line with the expectations.

The data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics of China showed that the country’s industrial production, which measures the change in the total inflation-adjusted value of output produced by manufacturers, mines, and utilities, rose to 9.3 percent in April, up from 8.9 percent recorded in March.

A separate data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics of China showed that retail sales that measure the change in the total value of inflation-adjusted sales at the retail level, edged up in-line with economists’ expectations to 12.8 percent in April from 12.6 percent recorded in March.

In another indication that the world’s second largest economy is still struggling to retain economic growth momentum, China’s fixed asset investment posted a worse-than-expected rise in April. The data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics of China showed that the country’s fixed asset investment, which measures the change in the total spending on non-rural capital investments such as factories, roads, power grids, and property, rose to 20.6 percent in April, down from 20.9 percent in March and less than analysts’ estimate of 21 percent.

The factory output data comes after the unexpectedly high export figures for the April, which many analysts pointed out as botched up. The data released Wednesday by China’s General Administration of Customs showed that exports were up 14.7 percent from a year earlier, and imports were up 16.8 percent year-on-year. However, analysts exposed an anomaly in the data as huge surge in exports from China to Hong Kong that reportedly bolstered the country’s export figures were not reflected in Hong Kong’s data on imports from China.

The Chinese government has already opened an investigation into whether exporters are over invoicing shipments to evade currency controls and move money into China to profit from the forex trade, the New York Times reported.

The Chinese government has set a GDP growth target of 7.5 percent for 2013, and is seen infusing capital with stimulus policies to boost growth. However, the Chinese economy GDP growth for the first quarter of the fiscal year slowed to 7.7 percent.

The slowdown also prompted analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., to cut their GDP forecast for the country to 7.8 percent, this year.

China Retail sales