May. 18, 2012 (China Knowledge) - Medium and large enterprises in the light industry in China saw their gross output jump 21.7% YoY to RMB 3.88 trillion in the first quarter of this year, slowing from a 30.5% growth in the same period of last year, according to figures released by the National Development and Reform Commission.

The country's output of raw salt rose 5.71% YoY to 9.85 million metric tons in Q1, and that of dairy products climbed 5.81% to 5.47 million metric tons. The country produced 13.89 million metric tons of news paper in the period, 8.23% more than in the same period of last year.

The country saw significant slowdown in the output of home appliances. The output of air-conditioners fell 1.23% YoY to 35.61 million units, decelerating by 49.62 percentage points compared with the Q1 of 2011.

The exports of the light industry grew 7.2% YoY to US$98.75 billion in the first three months.

In the first two months of this year, these medium and large light industrial enterprises realized RMB 2.30 trillion in core business revenue and RMB 130.72 billion in profit, reflecting growth of 19.8% and 20.7% YoY, respectively.