The country registered a 5.7 percent industrial output growth last year, compared with 6.2 percent in 2018.

Value-added industrial output rose 6.9 percent in December from a year earlier, 0.7 percentage points faster than the previous month.

Industrial output, officially called industrial value added, is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with annual turnover of at least 20 million yuan.

China's foreign trade volume rose 3.4 percent year-on-year to surpass 31.54 trillion yuan, the NBS said.

Among the figures, exports climbed 5.0 percent to total 17.23 trillion yuan, while imports surged 1.6 percent to 14.31 trillion yuan. Thus, the trade surplus was 2.92 trillion yuan, expanding 25.5 percent.