BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's industrial value-added output grew 13.8 percent year-on-year in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.

The figure was higher than the 13.5 percent annual growth in August.

On a monthly basis, the output increased 1.2 percent from that of August, said NBS Spokesman Sheng Laiyun at a press conference here.

In the first three quarters, industrial value-added output increased 14.2 percent year-on-year, down 0.1 percentage point from the first half of this year, said Sheng.

Industrial value-added output measures the final output value of industrial production, or the value of gross industrial output minus intermediate input, such as raw materials and labor costs.