BEIJING, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 5.8 percent year on year in the third quarter as factories stepped up production amid COVID-19 control, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.

In the first three quarters, industrial output went up 1.2 percent year on year, reversing a decline of 1.3-percent in the first half of this year, NBS data showed.

In September alone, output by major industrial firms jumped 6.9 percent year on year, 1.3 percentage points faster than that in August.

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 2.98 million U.S. dollars).

In the first three quarters, output by the high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing sectors rose 5.9 percent and 4.7 percent year on year, respectively.

In a breakdown by ownership, output by the private sector went up 2.1 percent year on year in the first three quarters while that by state-controlled enterprises rose 0.9 percent.

Monday's data showed that China's GDP product expanded 4.9 percent year on year in Q3, faster than the 3.2-percent growth seen in Q2.