BEIJING, June 15 (Xinhua) -- China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, further expanded in May as factory activities continued to pick up pace amid COVID-19 control, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.
The value-added industrial output went up 4.4 percent year on year in May, extending the rebound and up 0.5 percentage points from April, NBS data showed.
As of May 27, about 67.4 percent of the surveyed enterprises were back to 80 percent of their normal production levels, up 6.6 percentage points from late April, the NBS said.
In May, output by the manufacturing industry registered the fastest growth by expanding 5.2 percent year on year.
Output of industries in the production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas and water reported a year-on-year increase of 3.6 percent, while the mining sector saw output up by 1.1 percent.
In the first five months, industrial output went down 2.8 percent year on year, with the rate narrowing by 2.1 percentage points from the January-April period.
In a breakdown by ownership, output by the private sector went up 7.1 percent year on year in May, according to the data.
The output of state-controlled enterprises rose 2.1 percent, that of joint-stock companies rose 4.8 percent, and that of overseas-funded enterprises rose 3.4 percent.
Despite the recovering momentum, China's industrial activities still face many challenges and uncertainties, the NBS said in a statement.
Recovery in production was seen in most sectors, with new products maintaining high-speed growth, said NBS official Jiang Yuan, citing the over 70-percent growth of tech-intensive devices including 3D-printing equipment, smart watches and charging poles.
The industrial output is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.82 million U.S. dollars).
Monday's data also showed improvements in other readings of economic indicators. Fixed-asset investment totaled 19.92 trillion yuan in the first five months, down 6.3 percent year on year but narrowing by 4 percentage points from the first four months.
China's retail sales of consumer goods declined by 2.8 percent to 3.2 trillion yuan last month, recovering from the 7.5-percent drop in April, NBS data showed. Enditem
