China's industrial output growth quickened to 16.0 per cent in April from a year earlier, underscoring the economy's strength despite a year of efforts by the government to rein in lending and investment.
Economists said buoyant domestic demand, coupled with surging exports, was underpinning industrial output even though the authorities had managed to slow annual growth from rates near 20 per cent in early 2004.
"The number is pretty high, showing the momentum of growth is still very strong - a reflection of strong export growth, rising consumer demand and overheating in the investment sector," said Qu Hongbin, an economist with HSBC bank in Hong Kong.
For the first four months of 2005, industrial output was 16.2 per cent higher than in the same period last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Ben Simpfendorfer, an economist with JP Morgan Chase Bank in Hong Kong, said the figure pointed to an unexpected acceleration in output growth in the second quarter.
This could be troubling for the authorities, which have imposed restrictions on property lending, tightened land-use rules and made banks set aside more reserves in an attempt to stop the economy boiling over from excessive investment.