Growth in China's industrial output slowed to 7.3 percent year on year in April from 8.3 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.

The figure was at the high end of analysts' expectations, which ranged from 7.1 percent to 7.3 percent.

The figure for January-April was up 5.5 percent year on year.

The slowdown in April was a natural correction from March, when enterprises were busy stockpiling after the Lunar New Year, said Lu Zhengwei, an analyst at the Industrial Bank.

This year, the long Lunar New Year holiday began in January and ended in February. That was two weeks earlier than in 2008.

Lu added that after inventories were rebuilt in April, industrial conditions were still "grim."

Industrial output for exports was 566.21 billion yuan (US$83.27 billion) last month, down 14.3 percent from a year earlier, the NBS said. Exports sank 22.6 percent in April, the sixth monthly decline in a row.

Power consumption dropped 3.5 percent year on year to 271.29 billion kilowatt-hours in April.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2009)