The Chinese government said industrial output will expand by about 10 percent this year, lowering its sights from an 11 percent goal given in December after weaker-than-anticipated domestic and overseas demand.
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A slow recovery abroad and weak investment at home will keep weighing on Chinese factories, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement on its website yesterday. Factory output rose 9.2 percent in July from a year earlier, bringing gains for the first seven months of this year to 10.3 percent.
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The ministry's forecast shows officials are recog-nizing the deepening slowdown in the world's second-largest economy, after growth dipped to a three-year low of 7.6 percent last quarter. Chinese stocks are trading near the lowest levels since the aftermath of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
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"China's economic situation at present is more complicated and faces more uncertainties than 2008 when the international financial crisis broke out," the ministry said.Â
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"It may take a quite long period of time for the world economy to move out of its difficulties, and the recovery prospects are not optimistic," it added.
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Industrial production from shipyards to steel plants has been key to the nation's expansion.