China's industrial value-added output is expected to grow 13.5 percent year-on-year this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a report Friday.

The rise will slow from the 14.2-percent growth for the January-August period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). August recorded a 13.5 percent increase, down 0.5 percentage points from that of July.

Industrial production will "face a more complicated environment for the rest of the year," said the report jointly issued by the MIIT and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank.

"Uncertainties are building," said Huang Libin, an inspection and coordination official with the MIIT, citing high energy and material prices, rising labor costs, tight supplies of coal and oil, exchange rate changes and financing difficulties.

"The external environment for industrial production is becoming tighter with the faltering global economic recovery, mounting global inflation, and the worsening debt crisis," he said. The uncertainties will impact China via finance, trade and investment, he added.

He said the difficulties for the rest of the year are controllable. Fixed-asset investment remains the major driver of steady growth of industrial production, the report said, including input in water facilities and low-income housing projects.

The NBS said China's fixed-asset investments rose 25 percent year-on-year during the first eight months of the year, 0.4 percentage points lower than that of the past seven months.

Source:xinhuanet