BEIJING, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's industrial value-added output expanded 6.2 percent year on year in October, compared with 6.6-percent growth in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.
On a month-on-month basis, industrial output edged up 0.5 percent from September, according to the NBS.
In the January-October period, combined industrial output grew 6.7 percent year on year, flat with the first nine months of the year.
"The industrial output maintained overall stability, and corporate profitability continued to improve," NBS spokesperson Liu Aihua told a press conference.
Though moderating from September, October's industrial output growth was 0.1 percentage point higher than that of the same period last year, she said.
For the January-October period, output growth picked up 0.7 percentage points from the same period last year, she told reporters.
In the first nine months of the year, industrial firms above the designated size posted a 22.8-percent year-on-year increase in combined profits, up 14.4 percentage points from a year earlier, according to Liu.
Industrial output is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with annual turnover of at least 20 million yuan (around 3 million U.S. dollars).
In October, manufacturing output increased 6.7 percent year on year, while output from suppliers of power, heating, fuel gas and water gained 9.2 percent. The mining sector, however, fell 1.3 percent.