China's industrial output showed signs of slowing down in May, suggesting the Asian giant is hurting from weakening demand from abroad, the government and experts said Monday.
Factory production in the world's fourth largest economy increased 16.0 percent last month from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

The figure was rather modest by Chinese standards, even though May had three more working days in 2008 than in 2007 following a reform of the holiday schedule, analysts said.

Industrial output had risen by 15.7 percent in April, but in May last year -- a more relevant comparison -- it had gone up by a significantly more robust 18.1 percent.

Xing said output was mainly affected by a slowing global economy, with the increase in the value of exports delivered by Chinese industrial producers easing to 18.2 percent in May from 19.9 percent in the same month last year.

In the first five months of 2008, China's trade surplus declined by 8.6 percent from the same period a year ago to 78 billion dollars, previously published statistics showed.

The Chinese government said earlier this month the trade surplus was likely to shrink in 2008 for the first time in five years on weakening exports mainly due to the rising local currency and the US economic slowdown.