China's industrial production rises 15.4%

Industrial production increased 15.4 percent in the first two months from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said today.

The sales rate of industrial goods by these companies, defined as those with annual revenue of more than 5 million yuan (US$703,235), edged up 0.7 percentage points year-on-year to reach 97.5 percent.

The first two months are combined to factor in the impact of the Spring Festival, which falls either in January or February.

The export value of industrial goods generated a combined value of 1.08 trillion yuan, up 14.8 percent from the same period last year, the bureau said.

Among the subcategories, the production of oil climbed 1.2 percent to 307.8 million tons while that of coal expanded 13.4 percent to 360 million tons.

Electricity output climbed 11.3 percent to 516.9-billion-kilowatt hours.