The Chinese government has said the country's industrial output rose 8.9% in May from a year earlier, as massive stimulus measures introduced last year began to kick in.
The figures come as the Asian giant's export dependent economy is battered by the global slump, which has slashed demand in key overseas markets.
May's data represents an improvement on a 7.3% increase in April and the 8.3% growth recorded in March, according to a statistics bureau statement.
Growth in industrial output - a main gauge of activity in factories and plants across China - hit lows of just over 5% at the end of last year as the world slowdown bit.
The government late last year launched an unprecedented $585 billion spending package focused on infrastructure investment - and various economic indicators show it is starting to have an impact.
But the figures were still down from the 16% increase logged in May last year, according to the bureau statement. May's production of cement, a key component in construction projects, increased 13.5% from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said.
In another sign of increasing domestic consumption, the statistics bureau said Chinese retail sales grew by 15.2% year-on-year in May, up from the 14.8% rise in April. For all of last year, retail sales were up 21.6%.
The World Bank has forecast economic growth of 6.5% in 2009, which would be China's lowest growth rate since 1990. It would also come after the country experienced double-digit growth between 2002 and 2007. The data was released a day after figures showed exports dived 26.4% year-on-year in May, a seventh straight month of declines.
