BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhua) -- China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 5.6 percent year on year in April, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Tuesday.

The growth rate was 1.7 percentage points higher than that of March, the bureau said.

In April, the industrial production was generally stable, and the equipment manufacturing sector grew rapidly, said the bureau.

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of large enterprises each with an annual main business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.88 million U.S. dollars).