SHANGHAI'S industrial production increased 16.7 percent from a year earlier to 257.9 billion yuan (US$38.9 billion) last month, the Shanghai Statistics Bureau said.

The pace, bucking the national trend, picked up from the rise of 15.9 percent in September, according to the bureau.

China's industrial production grew 13.1 percent year-on-year last month, down 0.2 percentage point from that in September due to stricter power control to meet energy conservation targets.

Heavy industries in Shanghai reported their production expanded 16.4 percent from a year earlier, falling behind growth of 17.7 percent in the light industry.

"The city is betting on innovation and technology to upgrade its manufacturing," said Wang Zehua, an analyst at the bureau. "The efforts have paid off with steadier growth in Shanghai's manufacturing sector."

Shanghai's six key industries including electronics, automobile, petrochemical, fine steel, machinery equipment and biomedicine saw their combined production jump 17.3 percent on an annual basis to 169.7 billion yuan last month, above the average growth of 16.7 percent. Among them, automobile output surged 30.7 percent year-on-year to 31.7 billion yuan, leading the other five industries.