Despite a slowdown from June, the pace last month was slightly higher than the 8.8-percent expansion seen in the January-June period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

Year-on-year growth in the first seven months also stood at 8.8 percent, and industrial output in July rose 0.68 percent from June.

China uses industrial value-added output to measure the final value of industrial production, or the value of gross industrial output minus intermediate input, such as raw materials and labor costs.

The NBS data only tracks the output of large Chinese companies with annual primary business revenues of more than 20 million yuan ($3.25 million).

The figures also showed that industrial output in China's western regions increased by 10.9 percent, trailed by 8.9 percent in central areas and 8.5 percent in eastern regions.

In a breakdown, the output of manufacturing rose 10 percent, for mining that added 6.2 percent and growth for electricity, heating, gas and water was 1.9 percent, the statement said.