BEIJING -- China's industrial added-value output growth is expected to register an increase of about 13.5 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2011, according to an official report released Thursday.

Growth for the first half of this year is forecast to be 0.7 percentage point lower than that in January-April, according to the joint report by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

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Industrial value-added output rose 14.2 percent year-on-year in the first four months, 4.9 percentage points lower than the same period of last year, according to MIIT.

Calling the industrial economic momentum "steady" in the first four months, the report urged preparations for "quite a few" difficulties and problems, such as rising costs, power shortages, squeezed liquidity and soaring inventories in the coming months.

"The growth rate of the industrial economy may weaken further this year," said the report, citing complexities at home and abroad, as well as instability and uncertainty in parts of the world.

With regard to the second half of this year, the report predicted pressures from overseas uncertainty and domestic macro economic tightening.

"Though major economies have recovered to some extent from the global financial crisis, the world economy is still not returning to the right track of normal growth," said the report.

Debt risks in the United States, Japan and some Euro countries still exist and the emerging economies are facing new problems such as inflation, which is now spreading from emerging countries to developed economies.

Domestically, the report said, arduous efforts are needed to maintain steady and sound economic growth, restructure the economy and manage the inflationary expectations.