China's industrial output hits record high in 2018

BEIJING - China's annual industrial output exceeded 30 trillion yuan ($4.4 trillion) for the first time last year, with stable profit growth and foreign investment inflows, a senior official said Tuesday.

The amount is roughly a third of the country's annual GDP, which grew 6.6 percent year-on-year to reach 90.03 trillion yuan in 2018, official data showed.

While their output grew at a steady 6.2 percent last year, major industrial firms posted a 10.3-percent increase in combined profits and a profit margin of 6.49 percent for primary business, 0.11 percentage points higher than the previous year, according to Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology.

Investment in the industrial sector also grew steadily, expanding 6.5 percent last year, up 2.9 percentage points from 2017, Miao told a press conference.

"Investment in manufacturing jumped 9.5 percent in 2018, the fastest growth since July 2015 and accelerating for nine consecutive months," he said.

With new measures to scrap restrictions on foreign investment in such industries as ship building, plane making and new energy vehicles (NEVs) last year, the whole general manufacturing sector has been basically open to foreign investment, according to Miao.

As the country revved up opening-up efforts, foreign direct investment in manufacturing rose 22.9 percent to $41.2 billion in 2018, he said.

China will continue to advance high-quality development of the manufacturing industry, expand the domestic market and support the growth in areas including the Internet of vehicles, NEVs, cruise ship building and winter sports facilities manufacturing, according to Miao.