China's industrial output grew 17.4 percent in April compared with the same month last year, boosted by continued strong global demand for Chinese products, official data showed Wednesday. In the first four months of 2007, industrial production rose 18 percent from the same period last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.
That is only slightly lower than the 18.3 percent growth in the first three months of 2007. Analysts argued that although the growth in April seems to be a bit slower than March, the March-April number is still looking very robust if compared to the second half of 2006.
The industrial output was announced in the same week the government said inflation in April had reached three percent, which policy makers have set as the maximum acceptable limit this year. Industrial output, a key measure of the temperature of the world's fourth-largest economy, has been boosted by strong exports of Chinese industrial enterprises. Exports by Chinese industrial companies in April rose 19.5 percent to hit 571.6 billion yuan (74.4 billion dollars), the statement said, 4.2 percentage points lower than in the first three months of the year.
Affected by the government's recent curbs on steel exports, the growth of crude steel output in April slowed to 16.5 percent from 22.3 percent in the first quarter, while that of rolled steel declined 5.3 percentage points to 20.9 percent.
As part of its effort to rein in export of energy and pollution-intensive industries, China removed as of April 15 exports tax rebates on 83 steel products and lowered the rate on 76 others to five percent. It is also going to impose an export licence policy on the same 83 steel products from May 20.
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