China’s economy slowed far more than expected in April, increasing pressure on the ruling Communist party to promote growth in the midst of its biggest political crisis in decades.

A range of official monthly data released yesterday by the government showed much weaker industrial activity, retail spending and investment than analysts and officials had predicted. These numbers, with weak trade figures released on Thursday, paint a picture of a continued deceleration in Chinese economic growth.

“Data on April spending and output put another nail into hopes that China’s economy is bottoming out,” said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics. “This run of poor data will shake policy makers’ confidence and we expect it to prompt further policy easing.”