BEIJING — China's crude oil output rose 2.3 percent year-on-year to 17.03 million metric tons in August, official data showed.

The August output grew 4.7 percent from the 2019 level. The daily oil output last month stood at 549,000 tons, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In the first eight months, the country's crude oil output came in at 133.22 million tons, an increase of 2.4 percent from a year earlier.

As one of the world's largest oil buyers, China imported 44.53 million tons of crude oil in August, down 6.2 percent year-on-year.

The crude oil imports dropped 5.7 percent year-on-year in the Jan-Aug period to 346.36 million tons, the NBS data showed.