China's industrial output falls 8.4% in Q1

China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, fell 8.4 percent in the first quarter of this year, as the novel coronavirus outbreak deals a huge blow to industrial production, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday.

Output by the manufacturing industry went down 10.2 percent, while the production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas and water reported a year-on-year decrease of 5.2 percent.

The mining sector saw output down by 1.7 percent in the period.

In a breakdown by ownership, the output of state-controlled enterprises went down 6 percent, that of joint-stock companies down 8.4 percent, and that of overseas-funded enterprises dropped by 14.5 percent.

In Q1, output by the private sector went down 11.3 percent year on year.

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (US$2.82 million).