BEIJING — China’s value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, expanded 5.4 percent year-on-year in April, official data showed on May 15.

The rate was down by 3.1 percentage points from March, but 0.1 percentage points faster than the first two months, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

In the first four months, industrial output increased 6.2 percent year-on-year, the same pace as that for the whole year of 2018.

China’s value-added industrial output is used to measure the output of large companies each with annual main business revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($2.9 million).

In a breakdown by ownership, the output of State-controlled enterprises went up 6 percent last month, joint-stock companies up 6.3 percent, and that of overseas-invested enterprises increased by 2.5 percent.

In April, the output of high-tech manufacturing sector surged 11.2 percent, more than doubled the pace of overall industrial output growth.

The production of new energy vehicles and microcomputers grew 17.1 percent and 16.6 percent, respectively.

Last month, the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index stood at 50.1, staying above the boom-bust line of 50.