BEIJING, March 18 -- China's industrial production picked up pace in the first two months of 2024, accompanied by faster growth in the high-tech manufacturing and the consumer goods manufacturing sectors, official data showed Monday.

The value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 7 percent year on year during the January-February period of 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The growth accelerated 0.2 percentage points from December 2023, according to the NBS.

On a monthly basis, industrial output edged up 0.56 percent in February from the previous month.

Commenting on the industrial data, NBS spokesperson Liu Aihua highlighted the notable uptick in the high-tech manufacturing and consumer goods manufacturing sectors.

High-tech manufacturing registered a 7.5 percent year-on-year increase in industrial output during the January-February period, up 1.1 percentage points from December 2023. The figure saw accelerated expansion for the third consecutive month, Liu said.

During the same period, the consumer goods manufacturing sector saw its value-added industrial output rise 4.7 percent year on year, accelerating by 4.4 percentage points from that in December 2023, according to Liu.

While cautioning about the remaining challenges faced by industrial enterprises stemming from a lack of orders and rising costs, Liu also highlighted the increasing innovation capacity in the industrial sector. She noted that China has nurtured a number of competitive industries in key fields.

A slew of supportive policies introduced lately including large-scale equipment renewal, trading-in of consumer goods and business environment optimization, are expected to further boost the subsequent industrial economy, according to Liu.

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of enterprises each with an annual main business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.82 million U.S. dollars).