Industrial value-added output growth quickens to 13.9%
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China's industrial value-added output growth accelerated to 13.9 percent year on year in August from July's 13.4 percent growth, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Saturday.
The growth rate for the first eight months was 16.6 percent year on year, down 0.4 percentage points from the January-to-July period, NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun said.
All 39 industries saw year-on-year growth in August, with textiles up 11.6 percent, chemical materials and products up 12.9 percent, general equipment manufacturing up 20.1 percent, and transportation equipment manufacturing up 16.6 percent.
China's power generation in August rose 12.6 percent from a year earlier to 390.3 billion kilowatt-hours, Sheng added.
Industrial value-added output measures the final results of industrial production -- the value of gross industrial output minus intermediate inputs such as raw materials and labor.
Sheng said the rebound in industrial value-added output growth in August was the first increase in the speed of growth this year, after seven consecutive months of decreases in the rate of growth.
"It is a good result," Sheng said, attributing the pickup to equipment manufacturing and light industries.
The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of China's manufacturing sector rose to 51.7 percent in August, up 0.5 percentage points from July, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said Sept. 1.
Sheng said the August output data was a mild rebound from the 13.4 percent growth in July and 13.7 percent growth in June, suggesting China's industrial production growth is "steady" rather than "rapid."
China's industrial value-added output growth is likely to slow to 10 percent year on year in the second half of the year, Xin Guobin, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Sept. 7.
Xin said the slowing in growth will be due to the government's efforts to restructure the economy, a cooling in the property market and last year's high comparison base.
For the full year, industrial value-added output growth will be 13 percent, he said.
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