Technicians of PetroChina check manufacturing equipment at a natural gas purifying plant in Suijing, Southwest China's Sichuan province. [Photo by Liu Changsong/For China Daily]

BEIJING - China saw slower growth in natural gas output last month, according to official data.

The natural gas output went up 3.7 percent year-on-year to 14.2 billion cubic meters last month, retreating from the 4.8-percent rise seen in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

Average daily production came in at 460 million cubic meters.

In the first eight months of this year, the country's natural gas production gained 8.8 percent year-on-year to 122.5 billion cubic meters.

The country's natural gas imports surged 12.3 percent year-on-year to 9.36 million tons last month, according to the NBS.