China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, expanded 6 percent year on year in the first half, official data showed Monday.

The growth rate was 0.5 percentage points lower than that recorded in the first quarter of the year, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

In June alone, industrial output increased 6.3 percent year on year, 1.3 percentage points faster than that registered in May.

China's value-added industrial output is used to measure the output of large companies each with annual main business revenue of more than 20 million yuan (about 2.9 million US dollars).