BEIJING — China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, continued to recover as factories stepped up production amid effective COVID-19 control, official data showed on Aug 14.

Industrial output went up 4.8 percent year-on-year in July, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

On a month-on-month basis, industrial output rose 0.98 percent.

In July, output by the manufacturing industry expanded 6 percent year-on-year.

Output of industries in the production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas and water reported a year-on-year increase of 1.7 percent, while the mining sector saw output down by 2.6 percent.

In a breakdown by ownership, output of State-controlled enterprises rose 4.1 percent year-on-year last month, while that of the private sector went up 4.2 percent.

The output of joint-stock companies rose 4.2 percent and that of overseas-funded enterprises gained 7.6 percent.

The output by high-tech and equipment manufacturing sectors increased 9.8 percent and 13 percent respectively, both markedly outpacing the overall growth in industrial output, said NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui.

In the first seven months, industrial output went down 0.4 percent year-on-year, with the rate narrowing 0.9 percentage points from the January-June period.

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about $2.88 million).

The data also showed improvements in other readings of economic indicators. China's fixed-asset investment went down 1.6 percent year-on-year during the January-July period, narrowing from the 3.1-percent decline in the first half of the year.

Retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of consumption growth, rose 0.85 percent month-on-month in July, the NBS data showed.