Hit by shrinking demand amid global financial and economic turmoil, the growth of China's petroleum and chemical industry slowed in November, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association said on Monday.

Output value rose just 0.8 percent year-on-year to 484.25 billion yuan (US$70.82 billion), the group said. That was 28.1 percentage points lower than the year-earlier level and down 17.7 points from the previous month.

The total included 260 billion yuan generated by the chemical sector, down 1.5 percent, and 68 billion yuan by the oil and gas extraction sector, down 1.2 percent.

The two sectors' growth rates were 30.5 percent and 34 percent, respectively, for the same month last year.

Last month, among 69 types of petrochemical products surveyed, 70 percent reported declining output.

Fertilizer production fell 16.3 percent year-on-year, or 12.8 percent month-on-month, to 4 million tonnes. Methanol output fell 9.6 percent year-on-year and 17 percent month-on-month to about 838,000 tonnes.

(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2008)