BEIJING - Output of China's light industry grew by 15 percent year-on-year in 2011, 1.1 percentage points faster than the rate for all industries, the country's industrial authority said Thursday.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a statement posted on its website that the proportion of light industry in all industries dropped 0.52 percentage point from a year earlier to 17.33 percent last year.

Total sales of light industry surged 28.9 percent year-on-year to 15.5 trillion yuan ($2.45 trillion), the statement said.