BEIJING, May 15 (Xinhua) -- China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, expanded 5.4 percent year on year in April, official data showed Wednesday.

The rate was down by 3.1 percentage points from March, but 0.1 percentage points faster than the first two months, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

In the first four months, industrial output increased 6.2 percent year on year, the same pace as that for the whole year of 2018.

China's value-added industrial output is used to measure the output of large companies each with annual main business revenue of more than 20 million yuan (about 2.9 million U.S. dollars).