China's industrial added value continued to shrink this year with a growth of 5.2 percent in the first two months, down 0.5 percentage point from last December, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Sunday.

In the January-February period, the added value of light and heavy industries grew 6.5 percent and 2.7 percent respectively, 1.6 percentage point and 2 percentage points lower than the figures in December, according to MIIT.

Exports of industrial goods also kept falling as large industrial firms' export delivery value dropped by 17.1 percent to 896.8 billion yuan, 31.9 percentage points lower than that in the 2008, MIIT said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2009)