China's industrial value-added output, a barometer of overall economic growth, rose 16.5 percent in May from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Friday.

The growth rate was 7.6 percentage points higher than in May last year, but 1.3 percentage points lower than April's, said Sheng Laiyun, a spokesman with the NBS.

The January-May growth for industrial value-added output was 18.5 percent, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points from the figure for the first four months, Sheng said.

Industrial production was stable, expanding relatively quickly in the first five months, Sheng said.

But the May's growth has contracted from April's, as the industrial output increase for the nation's heavy industries dropped 1.6 percentage points to 17.8 percent, and that for light industries fell 0.5 percentage points to 13.6 percent, according to the NBS.

The nation's 39 major industries all posted year-on-year growth in May, with textiles up 11.3 percent, chemical materials and products expanding 17 percent, communications equipment manufacturing rising 20 percent, and transportation equipment manufacturing increasing 22.3 percent, according to the NBS.