China's industrial output up 4.4% in August

BEIJING - China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, expanded 4.4 percent year-on-year in August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

The growth rate was 0.4 percentage points lower than that logged in July, according to the NBS.

On a monthly basis, the industrial output rose 0.32 percent from July.

In the first eight months, industrial output climbed 5.6 percent from the same period last year, down from 5.8 percent registered during the January-July period, the NBS data showed.

Industrial output, officially called industrial value added, is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan ($2.8 million).

In a breakdown by ownership, the output of state-controlled enterprises went up 4.1 percent year-on-year in August, while that of joint-stock companies went up 5.3 percent and that of overseas-funded enterprises and enterprises with investment from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan increased by 1.3 percent.

The production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas and water reported a year-on-year increase of 5.9 percent in August, the fastest among the three major sectors, which also include mining and manufacturing.

Manufacturing output rose 4.3 percent year-on-year, and output growth of the mining sector rose 3.7 percent.

High-tech manufacturing led the overall industrial output growth with its 6.1-percent year-on-year increase.