CHINA'S industrial output growth eased more than expected in October as factories felt the chill of the global slowdown, according to official data released yesterday.

Industrial production grew 13.2 percent last month from a year earlier, the slowest pace in a year, after rising 13.8 percent in September, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. That compared with a market consensus of 13.4 percent.

Economists said the reading is consistent with recent Purchasing Managers' Index data showing steady conditions in the manufacturing sector.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said last month that China will still be able to meet its full-year industrial growth target of 11 percent, although the slowing trend will continue. Industrial output rose 14.1 percent in the January-October period from a year earlier.

In a separate report, the bureau said China's fixed-asset investment, excluding rural households, jumped 24.9 percent in the first 10 months of this year, unchanged from that in the January-September period.