News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 16 Dec 2008

China's November industrial output slows to 5.4% on-year

China's industrial output growth slowed to 5.4 per cent in November from a year earlier, official data showed Monday, providing the latest evidence that the nation's economy is quickly losing steam.

 

In the first 11 months of the year, industrial output increased by 13.7 per cent from the same period in 2007, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

 

Industrial output growth has slowed steadily this year, coming off a peak of 17.8 per cent in March and falling to 8.2 per cent in October, according to previously announced government figures.

 

Other numbers released last week had already raised fears that China's economy, which had enjoyed five years of double-digit growth, was feeling the impacts of the global economic crisis much harder than initially expected.

 

In one of the clearest signals, the government said last week that exports fell by 2.2 per cent in November, the first decline in more than seven years.

 

Further reflecting the impacts of weakening overseas demand, the statistics bureau said Monday that exports of industrial products dropped by 5.2 per cent from November 2007.

 

China produced just 714,000 vehicles last month, down by 15.9 per cent from a year earlier, according to the bureau.

 

The production of pig iron, crude steel and rolled steel declined by 16.2 per cent, 12.4 per cent and 11 per cent respectively, it said.

 

Beijing has taken a number of measures, including repeated interest rate cuts and a US$586-billion stimulus package, to boost domestic demand in an effort to cope with the global downturn.

 

Nevertheless, economic growth is expected to be well down on the 11.9 per cent recorded last year.

 

The economy grew at only nine per cent in the third quarter, and the data out for November has all but ensured the fourth-quarter numbers will be much lower.