The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry downgraded its assessment of the nation's industrial activity Monday for the first time since September 1998, despite modest growth seen in the October-December quarter.

The downgrade came in its preliminary report on industrial activity, in which quarterly industrial output for the three-month period showed a growth of 0.3 percent from the previous quarter.

The quarterly growth in industrial activity marked an increase for six consecutive quarters, according to the ministry's preliminary report.

However, growth lost steam compared with the quarter-on-quarter growth of 1.7 percent logged in April-June and 1.6 percent for July-September, a ministry official said.

Given this slowdown, the ministry now believes production is on a "modest rising trend," instead of a "rising trend" as it had stated in previous reports, he said.

Industrial output for December alone grew 1.5 percent from the previous month, showing the first increase in two months, and the seasonally adjusted index of production at mines and factories reached 107.1 against a 100-point benchmark established in 1995.

The official attributed the month-on-month growth to the increase in production of such items as trains, cars and electronic devices. The ministry expects industrial output to continue to grow in January and February.

At the same time, the ministry reported that industrial output for calendar 2000 grew 5.7 percent from the previous year, marking the second consecutive year of growth.

Meanwhile, the index for shipments for December rose 1.7 percent from the previous month to 109.3, the first increase in two months. For the entire year, the shipment index grew 5.9 percent from the previous year, registering growth for two consecutive years, although quarterly shipments for the October-December period stayed flat compared to the previous quarter.

Inventories for December declined 0.1 percent from the previous month to mark 95.5 against the base index, falling for two consecutive months. Inventories for the October-December quarter grew 0.8 percent from the previous three-month period to register the first increase in three quarters, according to the report.