BEIJING — China's crude oil imports registered faster growth in October, while output remained stable, official data showed.

As one of the world's largest oil buyers, the country imported 45.51 million tons of crude oil last month, up 17.1 percent year-on-year, 6.3 percentage points faster than the growth in September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The country's crude oil output came in at 16.11 million tons last month, almost flat with the same period last year. In the first 10 months, crude oil production totaled 159.25 million tons, up 1.1 percent year-on-year, NBS data showed.

China aims to increase its annual domestic crude oil output to more than 200 million tons by 2020. The output in 2018 stood at 190 million tons.