China's industrial output accelerated 12.3percent in August from a year earlier, after gaining 10.8 percent in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

The August growth rate was 0.5 percentage points lower than the growth figure for the same month last year, but 1.5 percentage points up from July.

Compared with previous forecasts the growth rate of industrial output would be about 11.8 percent, the new figure is beyond most analysts' expectations.

The output of light industry, including the garment, textile and food sectors among others, rose 9.8 percent in August over the same month last year. The output of heavy industry increased 13.2 percent from a year earlier.

Power generation in August rose 9.3 percent over the same month in 2008 to hit 344.3 billion kwh. The output of coal and crude oil respectively rose 14.6 percent and 1.6 percent compared with August 2008.

In August, outputs of industrials invested in by foreign companies and investors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan rose 8.0 percent from a year earlier, compared with a growth rate of 5 percent in July.

"A fast output growth reflects that demand from overseas markets began to increase," said Liu Tiejun, a senior analyst with Haitong Securities.

"It's also a sign of recovery in the country's exports sector," he said.

Friday's figures from the General Administration of Customs show the value of China's foreign trade continued to fall in August, but its downward rate slowed.

The total value of imports and exports for August was 191.7 billion U.S. dollars, a decrease of 20.6 percent compared with the same month last year, but a 2.3 percent increase from July.

According to the NBS, China's industrial output from January to August rose 8.1 percent over the same period last year.

The growth rate was 7.6 percentage points lower than that in the 2008 January-August period, but up 0.6 percentage points from the first seven months of this year.

(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2009)