China maintained a steady economic performance in July with economic growth at a reasonable range, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.

In the first seven months of the year, the value-added industrial output of major industrial enterprises increased 5.8 percent year on year, 0.2 percentage points lower than in the first half of 2019. The volume in July alone increased 4.8 percent year on year, 1.5 percentage points lower than the previous month, according to NBS.

"Despite mounting economic downward pressure at home and a grave external environment, we are still seeing growth in modern service industries and high-tech manufacturing. At the same time, the export growth expanded as we continued to diversify the global trading markets and optimized our trade structure. Generally speaking, the economy is maintaining its growth momentum," said Liu Aihua, spokesperson for the NBS.

Another underlying concern from some is the slower growth in retail sales of consumer goods in July.

"The main reason behind more than two percent decline in the country's automobile retail sales in July is the large-scale sales promotion for vehicles in June. But the majority of other sectors enjoyed faster growth, especially in the catering business amid the nation's booming nightlife economy. And our online retail sales also grew steadily. Looking ahead, great potential in consumption remains," Liu added.

The added value of the high-tech manufacturing industry expanded 6.6 percent year on year, 1.8 percentage points higher than other major industrial enterprises.

Investment in the first seven months of the year grew steadily as real estate and fixed-asset (excluding rural household) investment expanded 10.6 and 5.7 percent respectively compared with the same period a year earlier.

The growth in manufacturing investment was 0.3 percentage points faster than the growth in the first six months, and the investment in high-tech services rose 11.9 percent year on year, 6.2 percentage points higher than that of the total investment.

Retail sales of consumer goods rose 8.3 percent for the first seven months of the year and the volume for July rose 7.6 percent.

Online retail sales saw a 16.8 percent year-on-year growth in the first seven months, with physical commodity sales surging 20.9 percent from one year earlier.

The consumer price index (CPI) in July rose 2.8 percent year on year and the producer price index (PPI) fell 0.3 percent year on year.

China's job market remained generally stable with 8.67 million new jobs created in urban areas in the first seven months, completing 79 percent of the annual target. Though, the surveyed urban unemployment rate went slightly up from 5.1 percent in June to 5.3 percent in July.

The total value of imports and exports saw accelerated growth for the first seven months of this year at about 17.4 trillion yuan (2.47 trillion U.S. dollars), with exports increasing by 6.7 percent year on year to around 9.5 trillion yuan and imports climbing 1.3 percent to 7.9 trillion yuan.

Accounting for 42 percent of the total trade value, the volume of imports and exports by private enterprises expanded 11.8 percent, 2.9 percentage points faster from a year earlier.

(CGTN's Wang Mengzhen and Li Da contributed to this story)