The output value of China's home appliance industry jumped 21.77 percent to 60.9 billion yuan (US$7.6 billion) in the first two months of 2006, the China Securities Journal quotes figures from the State Information Center (SIC) as saying on Wednesday.

The rate is 2.76 percentage points higher than that in the same period last year, the SIC says in a report.

The accumulative sales revenue of the industry during the two months totaled 56 billion yuan, rising 17.49 percent year on year, which was 9.45 percentage points lower than that in the same period last year, according to the SIC.

Compared with rising output, sales revenue of home appliance recorded a slow down, the SIC said, attributing this to the oversupply of manufacturers and diminishing demand of urban residents.

The SIC suggested home appliance companies to expand sales in China's vast rural area. In the next five years, 32.8 percent of Chinese rural families plan to buy color TV, 17.5 percent plan to buy washing machines, and 21.1 percent would buy refrigerators, the China Securities Journal says.