BEIJING — China’s cotton output went down slightly this year, official data showed on Tuesday.

Cotton output stood at 5.73 million tonnes, down 3 percent year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

However, cotton yield per hectare went up 1.5 percent to 1,892.6 kg per hectare thanks to favorable weather conditions and field management of cotton growers, according to Wang Minghua, an official with the NBS.

The total area of cotton fields shrank 4.4 percent from last year to around 3.03 million hectares, NBS data showed.