Shanghai's industrial production grew 3.8 percent in October from a year ago to 199.4 billion yuan (US$29.2 billion), the slowest expansion this year, the Shanghai Statistics Bureau said Wednesday.

The rise was down from September's 6.4 percent and August's 9.2 percent and came against the backdrop of the global financial crisis which eroded production demand in emerging markets.

In October, the value of goods heading overseas from Shanghai only grew 0.8 percent to 67.6 billion yuan, a loss of 21.6 percentage points from a year earlier.

Among the city's 30 export-oriented industries, 17 reported their negative growth. These included recycling which plummeted 83.4 percent from a year ago, leather-making production which declined 34.2 percent and the wood processing sector which dropped 30.7 percent in October.

"Affected by the severe global economic conditions, Shanghai's industrial output has shown a trend of a sharp slowdown," said Wang Zehua, an analyst with the statistics bureau.

Production of vehicles remained unchanged from the same month last year to stay at 57,300 units while the manufacturing of steel products fell 11.1 percent from a year earlier to 1.58 million tons.

To bolster the economy, Shanghai has allocated 160 billion yuan to spend through 2010 on certain projects. They cover infrastructure construction, technological innovation, improvement of people's livelihood and efforts to save energy and reduce pollution.

The Mayor of Shanghai, Han Zheng, said the city expected the stimulus package to raise the combined investment to 1.1 trillion yuan in the next two years.

Shanghai's fixed-asset investment, however, grew steadily in the first 10 months, bucking the trend of the slowing production. It grew 5.6 percent from a year ago to 373.6 billion yuan through October, up 0.8 percentage point from the growth recorded in the first nine months.

Investment in property development rose 3.6 percent to 112.3 billion yuan through October while urban construction added 15.1 percent to 131.2 billion yuan. But investment in industrial development dropped 1 percent to 109.4 billion yuan during the period, which raised more concerns of a slowdown in industrial output, Wang added.

(Shanghai Daily November 20, 2008)