China's crude oil output grew 1 percent year-on-year in August, down from an increase of 2.5 percent registered in July, official data showed Monday.

The country's crude oil output came in at 16.18 million tons last month, bringing the total in the first eight months to 127.49 million tons, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

As one of the world's largest oil buyers, the country imported 42.17 million tons of crude oil last month, rising 9.9 percent year-on-year, down 4 percentage points from the growth in July.

About 54 million tons of crude oil was processed in August, up 6.9 percent year-on-year, a faster increase than the 4-percent growth recorded in July, the NBS data showed.

China aims to increase its annual domestic crude oil output to more than 200 million tons by 2020. The output in 2018 stood at 190 million tons.