China's economic performance is still subject to downward pressure and its domestic and external situations remain "grim", the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in Beijing on Wednesday.

Chinese companies' difficulties and the effects of still "sluggish" external demand shouldn't be underestimated, the ministry said in a statement. At the same time, industrial output will increase at a "slightly higher" rate in the second quarter of the year than in the first quarter, Zhu Hongren, a spokesman for the ministry, said at a briefing. It was 11.6 percent in the first quarter.