This comes after it narrowly escaped a contraction in the June quarter and lifted its recovery prospects marginally for the rest of the year.
"This is due to a lower base for comparison - the Delta wave was weighing on economic activity in August 2021," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China economist at Capital Economics. However, outages at several state oil refiners and independent plants and thinning margins kept crude throughput near two-year lows. Daily coal output also slipped to a three-month low.
Property investment last month fell 13.8%, the fastest pace since December 2021, according to Reuters calculations based on official data. Policymakers have announced over 50 economic support measures since late May and stressed this quarter was a critical time for policy action.