Slowdown to compound worries over strength of its economy

China’s factory output in August slowed to 6.9 percent from a year earlier amid waning export demand and a slump in real estate development that has undermined steel and cement production, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The growth rate for industrial production in August was down sharply from 9.0 percent in July.

In other data, fixed assets investment in non-rural areas of China rose 16.5 percent in the January-August period compared with the same period a year earlier.

Industrial production was slowing amid weaker exports to major markets in Japan, Europe and the United States and the saturation of China’s domestic markets for vehicles and mobile phones after years of rapid growth, the bureau of statistics said.

The cooler summer months this year in eastern China, one of the country’s most economically active areas, also helped cut the national electricity production by 2.2 percent in August, the first time power production decreased since 2009, the bureau said.