BEIJING — China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 24.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter this year as factory activities continued to pick up, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on April 16.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, industrial output went up 2.01 percent, while in March alone, it jumped 14.1 percent year-on-year, the NBS said.

Output by major industrial firms increased by 14 percent compared with the first quarter in 2019, resulting in an average year-on-year Q1 growth of 6.8 percent over the past two years.

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 $3.06 million).