China's industrial production continued to expand in the first nine months of the year, with the high-tech manufacturing sector posting strong performance, official data showed on Monday.

The country's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 11.8 percent year on year in the first three quarters, putting the average Jan.-Sept. growth for the past two years at 6.4 percent, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

Despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and floods, the momentum for China's industrial upgrade has not been impeded, said NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui.

In the first three quarters, the output of manufacturing sector accounted for 27.4 percent of the total, up 1.1 percentage points from the same period a year earlier.

The output of the high-tech manufacturing sector jumped 20.1 percent year on year in the first nine months, faster than the growth pace of the overall industrial output, NBS data showed.

The digital and intelligent transformation of the manufacturing sector accelerated during the period, according to Fu.

Specifically, the output of new energy vehicles logged a sharp increase of 172.5 percent in the Jan.-Sept. period, while that of industrial robots and integrated circuits surged 57.8 percent and 43.1 percent, respectively.

In a breakdown by ownership, the private sector's output increased 13.1 percent, while the output of state-owned enterprises rose 9.6 percent.

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 3.11 million U.S. dollars).

In September alone, industrial output rose 3.1 percent year on year and 10.2 percent from the 2019 level, the NBS said.

The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector came in at 49.6 in September, earlier data showed.

The high-tech manufacturing sector, with its PMI rising to 54, maintained steady development in September, contributing to the growth in the manufacturing industry.