The industrial output of China's major industrial enterprises, which are companies with annual revenue of at least 5 million yuan (US$675,000), grew 17.9 percent year-on-year in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

 

The growth rate was one percentage point below the September figure.

 

From January to October, industrial output grew 18.5 percent year-on-year.

 

"We can't judge the trend of industrial growth based on this slight decrease," said Zhang Yansheng, director of the International Economic Research Institute, which is under the National Development and Reform Commission.

 

Output of transportation equipment grew the fastest among industrial sectors, at 24.8 percent in October. However, this was 3.6 percentage points below the year's high, which was set in August, according to the NBS.

 

Industrial output rose more than 20 percent for non-ferrous minerals products, general machinery, and electrical machinery and equipment.

 

The NBS said the sale-to-production ratio in October was 98.3 percent, up 0.04 percentage points from a year earlier.

 

Export shipments totaled 657 billion yuan in October, up 18.5 percent year-on-year

 

"The government is trying to reduce the ballooning trade surplus, which may cause a decline in exports," said Zhang.

 

In an effort to prevent the economy from overheating, China has taken a series of tightening measures this year, including five interest rate hikes and raising commercial banks' reserve ratio on nine occasions.

 

A World Bank (WB) report released on Thursday said its forecast for China's 2007 growth rate remained unchanged at 11.3 percent despite growing concerns about the US sub-prime crisis and rising oil prices.

 

The bank also maintained its forecast for Chinese growth in 2008 at a slightly lower 10.8 percent.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2007)