New sectors accelerate China’s industrial growth in 2017

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China’s industrial output expanded 6.6% in 2017, accelerating from 6% growth in 2016, the official data showed Thursday.

The strong performance was largely attributed to the sharp growth of new manufacturing sectors such as industrial robots, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

New-energy vehicles, industrial robots, solar power and integrated circuit outshone most other industries in terms of output in 2017, growing 51.1%, 68.1%, 38% and 18.2%, respectively, year on year.

On the other hand, mining and cement sectors saw their output decline 1.5% and 0.2%, respectively, while the textile and coal industries grew only 4% and 3.2%, respectively.

Industrial output, officially called industrial value added, is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with annual turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 3.1 million U.S. dollars).

Ownership analysis showed that industrial output of state-holding enterprises was up 6.5%, while industrial output of enterprises funded by overseas investors increased 6.9%.

Amid the drive to restructure and optimize industry, the country aims to reduce overcapacity in traditional sectors such as coal, iron and steel while facilitating growth in emerging areas.

The industrial output figures were released by the NBS along with a slew of other major economic indicators for 2017.

China’s GDP grew 6.9% year-on-year in 2017, well above the official target of around 6.5% and higher than the 6.7% growth registered in 2016. This also marked the first acceleration in annual GDP growth pace since 2010.