China's industrial output saw a year on year increase of 8.9 percent in May, the highest growth since October 2008. The National Bureau of Statistics said on June 12 that the rebound of the heavy industry was the main driving force.

The decrease in power generation was 0.8 percentage points lower than that in April, reflecting proportional movement with industrial output.

The heavy industry was hit hard by the global financial crisis and had been slumping fast since September last year. Its growth rate had been below that of the light industry till April. The situation finally reversed in May, when the growth of the heavy industry rebounded to 8.6 percent, 1.6 percentage points higher than the light industry.

The heavy industry contributed 69.5 percent of the total industrial output increase in May.

Twenty-nine sectors out of 39 accelerated in May compared with that in April. Hi-tech manufacturing, in particular, was doing a good job, with a year-on-year increase of 7.3 percent, which was 2.6 percentage points higher than that in April.

Sectors with intensive energy consumption also recovered, but at a low level of 5.9 percent growth. Metallurgy, non-ferrous metal, construction materials, chemicals and oil refinery sped up by 4 percentage points, 2.9 percentage points, 3 percentage points and 5.6 percentage points respectively over that in April.

Nearly 60 percent of the 494 major categories of industrial products achieved faster output growth in May than April. Output of the computer industry, the chemical fiber, iron alloy and automobile industries increased by more than 10 percent. Growth of sedans with less than 1 liter engine displacement sped up by 70 percentage points.

The good performance of China's major economic engines, including Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Shandong also contributed to the high data in May.

The quake-hit Sichuan's strong recovery is also an important factor behind the high national output growth. It is estimated that Sichuan's 32.5 percent surge in its industrial output has driven the national total up by 0.6 percentage points.

If the quake impact is removed from the statistics, then the growth rate of industrial output in May is 1 percentage point higher than that in April. Now the figure is 1.6 percentage points.

By People's Daily Online