November's rise was 0.8 percentage points slower than October's growth and 2.2 percentage points lower than the 12.8 percent gain in both August and July, said a statement from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Industrial production totalled 217.1 billion yuan (US$26.1 billion) in November.

For the first 11 months of this year, industrial production rose 11.5 percent from the same period last year to reach 2.1 trillion yuan.

State-owned companies' production grew 9.1 percent year-on-year in November, higher than October's growth rate of 8.3 percent.

Heavy industrial output grew by 13.2 percent year-on-year and stayed about the same compared to October.

But light industrial output increased at a slower rate of 7.5 percent year-on-year and the growth rate was 1.4 percentage points less than October's growth rate.

The slower growth in light industrial output was due to lower consumption during November.

Part of the reason for that was because there were no public holidays in November, compared to an unprecedented week-long National Day holiday in October, the report said.

Consumption of industrial products remained strong on the whole, with sales reaching 97.4 percent of total output in November, slightly higher than the same month last year and about the same as October.

In the first 11 months of the year, sales of industrial products reached 97.3 percent, also slightly higher than last year.

Exports of industrial products in November reached 129 billion yuan, a 21 percent rise year-on-year, but slightly slower than October.

Exports for the first 11 months of this year also increased 26.1 percent year-on-year.

(China Daily 12/11/2000)