BEIJING — China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, fell 8.4 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, as the novel coronavirus outbreak deals a huge blow to industrial production, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on April 17.

Output by the manufacturing industry went down 10.2 percent, while the production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas and water reported a year-on-year decrease of 5.2 percent.

The mining sector saw output down by 1.7 percent in the period.

In a breakdown by ownership, the output of State-controlled enterprises went down 6 percent, that of joint-stock companies down 8.4 percent, and that of overseas-funded enterprises dropped by 14.5 percent.

In Q1, output by the private sector went down 11.3 percent year-on-year.

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about $2.82 million).

In March, the industrial output edged down 1.1 percent year-on-year, shrinking by 12.4 percentage points from the drop in the first two months and nearing the level logged in the same period of last year, NBS spokesperson Mao Shengyong told a press conference.

Sixteen of the 41 sectors monitored by the NBS recorded increasing output in March, with high-tech manufacturing maintaining fast expansion.

High-tech manufacturing sector saw a year-on-year increase of 8.9 percent last month, while the output of industrial robots climbed 12.9 percent from a year earlier.

Around 40 percent of over 600 major industrial products monitored by the NBS saw year-on-year increase in output, revealing that the restoration of industrial production had achieved obvious results, Mao said.

Data released on April 17 also showed China's gross domestic product stood at 20.65 trillion yuan in Q1 amid COVID-19 impact, down 6.8 percent year-on-year.