Statistics

China's industrial value-added output rises 13.4% in April

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-11 10:17

BEIJING -- China's industrial value-added output rose 13.4 percent year on year in April, down from March's 14.8-percent growth, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

For the first four months of this year industrial value-added output increased 14.2 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from the January-March period, NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun said at a press conference.

Related readings:  China's April CPI up 5.3%, PPI up 6.8%  Retail sales up 17.1%  Industrial output up 13.4%  Trade surplus hits $11b

Industrial value-added output for the heavy industry sector expanded 14 percent last month from the same month last year, a slowdown from a 15.6-percent increase in March.

Analysts said the production slowdown in China's heavy industry was partly caused by power shortages in recent weeks that plagued many industry-heavy provinces such as Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangsu.

"In the short term, power shortages and cuts in some provinces will slow growth in some heavy industries, including cement, non-ferrous metal, iron and steel, and chemical sectors," Wang Tao, an economist with UBS Securities said in a note to clients.

However, Wang said the risk of severe nationwide power shortages that would hurt China's economic growth, was slim.

The country's light industry sector witnessed a year-on-year growth of 11.9 percent in industrial value-added output last month, accelerating from March's 12.8-percent rise.

Industrial value-added output measures the final results of industrial production, or in other words the value of gross industrial output minus intermediate inputs, such as raw materials and labor costs.

The NBS on Wednesday also released consumer price index (CPI), fixed asset investment and retail sales' figures.

The country's CPI rose 5.3 percent year on year in April, above the government's full-year target of 4 percent.