Industrial output grows faster in April

Workers assemble a milling machine at a CITIC Heavy Industries Co Ltd plant in Luoyang, Henan province. The country's industrial output increased 9.4 percent year-on-year in the first four months of the year. HUANG ZHENGWEI / FOR CHINA DAILY

China's industrial output expanded at a faster rate in April to 9.3 percent year-on-year, up from 8.9 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

Month-on-month growth in April, which reached 0.87 percent, was the fastest since May 2012, showing that factory output has rebounded slightly.

During the first four months of 2013, industrial output increased by 9.4 percent year-on-year, according to the bureau.

The western region saw the fastest industrial growth rate of 10.8 percent, 1.4 percentage points higher than the central areas and 1.9 percentage points above the eastern region.

In line with rebounding industrial production, power generation also picked up in April to 6.2 percent, from a seven-month low of 2.1 percent in March, according to the bureau.

Growth in total retail sales of consumer goods in April accelerated to 12.8 percent, a three-month high, compared with 12.6 percent in March.

But growth in fixed-asset investment declined from January to April from 20.9 percent to 20.6 percent. It was 21.2 in the first two months.

Stronger credit and monetary support has yet to be translated into faster growth, and sustainable economic development can no longer depend solely on monetary policy easing. Instead, the risk of excessive production capacity may increase, said Liu Ligang, chief Chinese economist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.

Property market restrictions may take their toll on fixed-asset investment, and it may remain weak in the coming months, a report from Moody's Analytics Inc said on Monday.

A housing market slowdown will also dampen industrial production, according to the report.