CRI听力:Industrial Growth Slumps below Eight Percent Again

The National Bureau of Statistics released datas yesterday showing that year-on-year growth for "above-scale industrials" came in at 7.7 percent, down three-tenths of a point compared to that of September.

The growth rate also dipped below 8 percent back in August.

The growth of above-scale industry in China has been below double digits since April, 2012.

Year on year growth has been kept between 8.0 and 9.0 percent.

Yuan Lei, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, explains that there are two main reasons for the recent slowdown of growth in the industry sector.

One is the shrinking of external demand since the delivered value for exports has dropped 2.6 percent from September.

Another reason is an increasing decline of private fixed investment, showing investors are not optimistic on the outlook of the economy.

So if China seeks to realize a goal of annual growth of 8.5 percent this year, the pressure to achieve this is relatively high given the current challenges.

For more on the World Energy Outlook 2014 , we are speaking live with with He Weiwen, senior fellow with Chongyang Institute for Financial studies, Renmin University.