Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Sherlock356]

Japan has been hurting for years....


Beijing, March 11 (Bloomberg) -- China's industrial production rose at the fastest pace on record in the past two months as manufacturers made more cars and computers for a growing middle class and exported more electronic goods to the U.S.

Production in January and February expanded 18 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The growth rate was the fastest since records began in 1995, said Lehman Brothers. Economists count the two months together to allow for the impact of Chinese New Year falling in different months.

``There has been a pickup in urban retail sales growth,'' said Robert Subbaraman, an economist at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo. ``You can attribute part of that to a rising middle class demanding more durable goods such as vehicles