Beijing, Nov 14 (AFP) China's industrial output slowed inOctober, official data showed today, as authorities fight smogby clamping down on pollution produced by heavy industries.
Output at factories and workshops expanded 6.2 per centon-year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, slowingfrom 6.6 per cent in September and below a forecast of 6.3 percent in a Bloomberg News survey.
The government has moved to wind down production at somesteel factories and smelters in a drive to clean up thecountry's smog-ridden cities.
Factories also closed during last month's Communist Partycongress, during which President Xi Jinping called for moreefforts to protect the environment.
The government is also pushing to make domestic demand agrowth driver of the world's second largest economy and makeChina less reliant on manufacturing and exports.
"Generally speaking, the national economy maintainedstable performance with improved quality and sound momentum,"NBS spokeswoman Liu Aihua told reporters.
"However, we must be aware that China is at a pivotalstage for transforming the growth model," she said, addingthat "problems of unbalanced and insufficient economicdevelopment was acute".
The readings follow a surge in factory price figures lastweek.
The clean-air policy, which has been stepped up goinginto the winter when pollution worsens, has led to tightersupplies and in in turn lifting prices.
NBS data showed growth in retail sales slowed to 10 percent in October, down 0.3 percentage points from September andalso short forecasts of 10.5 per cent.
Fixed asset investment grew 7.3 per cent on-year fromJanuary to October, in line with expectations.
"A cooling property sector and slightly softer foreigndemand weighed on the economy last month," Capital Economicsanalyst Julian Evans-Pritchard wrote in a research note.
"Disruptions from the anti-pollution crackdown in thenorth-east of the country probably contributed too," he said.
However, "these drags continue to be partly offset bystill strong infrastructure spending".
This month's figures follow a string of positiveindicators suggesting the economy is stabilising, with grossdomestic product tipped to grow at a faster pace than thegovernment's target this year.
Trade data last week showed import and export numbers hadsoftened slightly in October.
"China still intends to strike a balance between growth,debt and leveraging," Zhou Hao, an economist at Commerzbank AGin Singapore told Bloomberg News.
But, "that said, we need to prepare for some downsidebias for the trade and activity data in the coming months".
(AFP)AMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.