Chinese economic activity surged in the first two months of 2021 when compared with the same coronavirus-battered period last year, though the picture was less rosy when weighed against growth momentum in the final months of 2020, reports The Wall Street Journal. China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed industrial production, consumption, investment and home sales in January and February all jumping by more than 30% from the same period a year earlier, when the Chinese economy was largely shut down to contain the coronavirus. At the same time, the surveyed urban unemployment rate, ticked higher to 5.5% in February, from January’s 5.4% and December’s 5.2% data. The rise in February puts China’s urban unemployment rate at the ceiling that China’s policy makers have set for the year. Last year, Beijing set its urban unemployment target at 6.0% or less. The number of jobless people increased at the beginning of the year as gig workers returned home for Lunar New Year and labor demand dropped during the holiday, said Ning Zhang, an economist at financial management solutions firm UBS.