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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

"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. 

 

"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.

 

Industrial production from shipyards to steel plants has been key to the nation's expansion.

 

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