Growth in China's industrial output continued to decline in November, due to the central government's macro-control measures.

The month's industrial output grew a year-on-year 14.8 percent to 508.4 billion yuan (US$61.3 billion), figures from the National Bureau of Statistics indicate.

The growth rate was 0.9 percentage points slower than that in October.

Zhang Xueying, a senior economist with the State Information Center, said the decline in November's industrial output was mainly a result of the central government's macro-control measures.

The government took a raft of measures including raising the bank reserve requirements three times and curbing the unwanted fixed asset projects to cool overheated investment in sectors such as steel and cement.

"The measures should have had a big impact on the fixed asset investment and industrial output," Zhang said in a telephone interview.

The slower growth (in the industrial output) was beneficial for the country to maintain stable economic growth, he said.

"That is why the central government has decided to continue the macro-control measures next year," he said.

China's industrial output has begun to slow since it peaked at 23.2 percent in February.

Tang Min, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank resident mission in China, said the 14.8 percent growth (in the country's industrial output) was still a swift rate.

"The growth will continue to decline in the coming months," he told China Daily.

(China Daily December 10, 2004)