BEIJING, May 26  -- The growth of China's logistics industry continued to slow in the first four months of 2014 due to shrinking demand amid an economic slowdown, new data showed on Monday.

The total value of goods transported by logistics services increased 8.5 percent year on year to 64.2 trillion yuan (10.4 trillion U.S. dollars), according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

The growth rate was 0.1 percentage points lower than the first quarter and 0.9 percentage points lower compared to the same period last year.

The commission said that the industry's efficiency has been improving as the growth of logistics expenditure was slower than that of the value of goods transported.

Combined logistics expenditure in the Jan.-April period totaled 3.1 trillion yuan, up 8.0 percent from a year ago.

The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing forecast in mid-May that the logistics sector will improve later this year and the growth for the whole year will be around 9 percent.