Growth in China's factory production slowed to 8.9 percent in August while the country's retail sales increased at a steady rate.

The National Bureau of Statistics data released Sunday suggests Beijing might need to launch more stimulus efforts to reverse a painful slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

The year-on-year growth in August factory production was a slowdown from 9.2 percent in July.

The bureay says retail sales rose 13.2 percent year-on-year in August, which was 0.1 percentage point higher than the growth rate in July.

Inflation data also released Sunday showed China's inflation rate increased slightly to 2 percent in August.