BEIJING - Less-than-satisfying demand both at home and abroad caused industrial production growth in China's textile sector to slow in the January-July period, data released Thursday showed.

The sector's gross industrial output expanded 10.9 percent to 3.15 trillion yuan ($497 billion) in the first seven months, down 18.8 percentage points year-on-year, according to Sun Huaibin, spokesman for the China National Textile and Apparel Council.

The industrial output covered 37,000 companies across the country, Sun said at an industrial conference.

Domestic sales of China's textile companies reached 2.58 trillion yuan in the first seven months, up 12.5 percent year-on-year. However, the growth rate was down 20.3 percentage points year-on-year, the data showed.

During the same period, the country's exports of textile garments rose by a marginal 0.3 percent to $141.58 billion, down 25 percentage points compared to the same period last year, Sun said.

The CNTAC forecast that the textile industry will continue to face heavy pressure and slowing industrial production in the future.