Industrial production rose 9.2 percent last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said, compared to an increase of 9.5 percent year-on-year in June.

Output for the first seven months of 2012 rose 10.3 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Separately, retail sales, the main gauge of consumer spending, also slowed, rising 13.1 percent in July compared with the same month last year, the bureau said.

Retail sales had gained 13.7 percent in June. They rose 14.2 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2012.

China's economy grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter from the same period the year before to log its worst performance since the depths of the global economic crisis in 2008-2009.

Authorities have taken measures including slashing interest rates and loosening restrictions on bank lending to boost growth, which has been dented by weakness in overseas economies including the European Union, a key trading partner.

Also Thursday, the bureau said that China's urban fixed asset investments rose 20.4 percent in the first seven months of 2012 compared with the same period the year before.

Fixed asset investments are a key measure of government spending on infrastructure.