Industrial production rises 16% in May

By Wang Yanlin  |   2008-6-16  |     ONLINE EDITION

CHINA'S industrial production maintained a steady growth in May despite the Sichuan earthquake and increasing production costs, the National Bureau of Statistics said today.

Output rose 16 percent from a year earlier last month, compared with 15.7 percent in April and 17.8 percent in March.

Combined growth in the first five months settled at 16.3 percent, down from 18.5 percent from the entire year of 2007.

The May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province halted almost all industrial production in quake-hit areas. But since the combined output of the 11 counties and cities devastated by the quake only accounted for 0.17 percent of total national output, its overall influence was limited.

The Producer Price Index, the main gauge of factory-gate inflation, rose 8.2 percent in May to reach a three-year high. But it did not fundamentally change investors' confidence in the economy, analysts said.

Last month, the output of coal, crude oil and electricity increased 18.5 percent, 1.8 percent and 11.8 percent respectively. The production of automobiles jumped 21.7 percent to 895,000 units.

The output of the textile industry, the most influenced by weakening exports, also managed to gain 12.1 percent.