China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 3.5 percent year on year in May, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Thursday.

The growth rate was 2.1 percentage points lower than that of April.

China's industrial production overcame the adverse factors of weak market demand and falling prices, and maintained the recovery momentum in May, NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui told a press conference.

A breakdown of the figure by industries showed that the manufacturing sector's output increased by 4.1 percent year on year during the period, while the production and supply of electricity, heat, gas and water rose 4.8 percent.

By ownership, state-controlled enterprises saw an increase of 4.4 percent in output, while the private sector's output grew by 0.7 percent, according to the NBS.

In terms of product types, the production of solar cells and new energy vehicles surged 53.1 percent and 43.6 percent year on year, respectively.

The country's industrial output rose 3.6 percent year on year from January to May.

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of large enterprises each with an annual main business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.8 million U.S. dollars).