BEIJING, Oct. 21  -- China's industrial production growth decelerated to 8.5 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters, down 0.3 percentage points from that of the first half, official figures showed on Tuesday.

In September, the industrial output rose 8 percent year-on-year, 1.1 percentage points higher than that of August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

On a month-to-month basis, the industrial output in September expanded by 0.91 percent from August, it said.