BEIJING, April 15  -- Industrial output in China grew 6.4 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2015, down from 8.7-percent growth a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Wednesday.

The figure was released by the NBS with other major economic indicators for the first three months, suggesting continued downward pressure on the world's second largest economy.

In March, China's industrial output growth dipped to 5.6 percent year on year, the lowest monthly level since December, 2008, following 6.8 percent growth in the first two months, the NBS data showed.

Breaking it down, the output of manufacturing rose 7.2 percent in the first quarter, while the mining industry saw output grow 3.2 percent. Growth for electricity, heating, gas and water was 2.3 percent.

Industrial output of state-owned and state-controlled enterprises saw 1.7 percent growth year on year, while that of joint stock companies expanded by 7.4 percent. Industrial output of enterprises funded by overseas investors expanded by 4.3 percent.

In the first two months, China's industrial enterprises raked in combined profits of 745.2 billion yuan (121.57 billion U.S. dollars), down 4.2 percent from a year earlier, data showed.

China uses industrial output, officially called industrial value added, to measure the activity of designated large enterprises, each with annual turnover of at least 20 million yuan.