Industrial output during the month stood at 283 billion yuan (US$34 billion), the bureau said in a statement.

The growth was 0.4 percentage points higher than the previous month and also marked the highest growth so far this year, the bureau said.

For the first 10 months of the year, the country's industrial output grew a year-on-year 12.3 per cent to 2,531.7 billion yuan (US$305 billion).

Three major industries of electronics and telecommunications equipment manufacturing, transportation equipment manufacturing, and the chemical industry accounted for 38.6 per cent of the industrial output, the bureau said.

The three industries contributed 5.5 percentage points to the total industrial growth.

Output of mobile phone products and personal computers saw an average of 66.2 per cent and 94.6 per cent growth respectively in October compared with a year ago.

In October, 319,000 cars and trucks were produced, a rise of 53.8 per cent from October 2001, the bureau said.

Zhang Xueying, a senior economist with the State Information Centre said the rapid growth in industrial output was partly due to increasing external demand resulting from the recovery of the world economy.

In October, exports from the industrial sector reached 181.8 billion yuan (US$21.9 billion), a year-on-year increase of 28.6 per cent.

"The country's efforts to stimulate investment and consumption to expand domestic demand also contributed to the rapid industrial growth," he said.

The rapid growth in industrial output is good news for China's economy as the industrial sector contributed about 60 per cent to the gross domestic product, he said.

Hu Shaowei, another senior economist with the State Information Centre, said domestic investment and consumption as well as exports will continue to have a great impact on the country's industrial sector and the whole economy in the coming months.

"China will continue to fund vast infrastructure projects," he said. "This will benefit heavy industries, which are expected to sell more goods such as steel and cement."

More foreign investment will also flow into China due to the country's accession to the World Trade Organization, the nation's steady economic growth and its sound social order, experts said.

Zeng Peiyan, minister of the State Development Planning Commission, said China's economy is expected to grow 8 per cent for the whole year of 2002, above the 7 per cent economic growth target set at the beginning of the year.

(China Daily November 12, 2002)