China's industrial output growth quickens to 13.9% in August

BEIJING - Growth of China's industrial value-added output accelerated to 13.9 percent year-on-year in August from July's 13.4 percent increase, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced 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, said Sheng Laiyun, the NBS spokesman.

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, Sheng said.

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, which is the value of gross industrial output minus intermediate inputs such as raw materials and labor.