With much of the growth attributed to overseas demand for industrial exports, China's industrial output rose 16.% to 903 billion yuan ($109 billion) in the first two months of the year, data showed March 15. No figures were given for February when China enjoyed a 10-day Lunar New Year holiday. However, the two month figure follows an 8.9% year-on-year increase in January.
Industrial exports led the charge in growth with Chinese factories churning out 583.8 billion yuan worth of exports in the first two months, up 33.4% over the same period last year. Industrial export growth was 7.1 percentage points faster than in the same period last year and may have reflected the ending of global quotas on textiles exports on January 1.
Meanwhile, metallurgical production increased 26.8% during the two months, while electronics and other information technology industries rose 19.1%, the bureau said.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005
