First-quarter industrial output growth slowed to a crawl in south China's Guangdong Province as the global downturn took its toll on the export hub.

The provincial economic and trade commission said on Sunday that the output of major industrial enterprises rose just 0.9 percent from a year earlier to 303.788 billion yuan (US$44.5 billion).

The growth rate was 12.7 percentage points lower than the year-earlier level and 4.2 percentage points below the national average.

However, the rate was 0.1 percentage point above the level in the first two months.

Aggregate profits of large enterprises, defined as those with annual sales of at least 5 million yuan, fell 33.73 percent to 21.72 billion yuan in the first two months, the commission said.

However, thanks to efforts to boost the provincial economy, Guangdong's fixed-asset investment rose 17.8 percent to 65 billion yuan in the first quarter, including 14.13 billion yuan for technical upgrading, up 50.4 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency May 3, 2009)