China's machinery industry output expanded 7.28 percent year on year to 4.79 trillion yuan (about 701.3 billion U.S.dollars) in the first half of 2009, the slowest growth in the past seven years, China Machinery Industry Federation (CMIF) said here Tuesday.

The federation attributed the decline in growth to the country's slowed economy in the first six months, but it is confident that the growth in machinery industry would rebound in the second half as China's economy bottomed out.

Latest data from CMIF showed that the industry had witnessed a growing trend in the first six months since its gross industrial output growth shrank to 2.9 percent in the Jan.-Feb. period. In June, industrial output surged 11.65 percent year on year to more than one trillion yuan.

The country's machinery industry saw profits down 7.73 percent from the same period last year to 189.8 billion yuan, compared to a 25.81 percent profit decline year on year in the first two months this year, said CMIF.

The federation predicted a 12-percent growth in gross industrial output and an eight percent growth in profit, as the country's economy is expected to pick up growth under the government's proactive fiscal policy and the relatively easy monetary policy, which would give rise to machinery demand, it said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2009)