China's July power consumption rises 8.8 pct

Electricity consumption in China, a common indicator of economic activity, rose 8.8 percent year-on-year to 495 terawatt-hours in July, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA) on Wednesday.

The growth was 4.3 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 2.5 percentage points more than June, the NEA announced online.

In the first seven months, power consumption increased 5.7 percent from the same period last year to 2990 terawatt-hours.

During the same period, electricity use by the service sector grew 9.9 percent, to 351 terawatt-hours, while the industrial sector consumed 2210 terawatt-hours, 5.4 percent more than a year ago.

The agricultural sector witnessed a slight drop of 1.7 percent. Residential power use increased 5.1 percent year on year.

China added 39.3 gigawatts of power capacity in the January-July period, including 12.7 gigawatts of hydropower and 17.5 gigawatts of thermal power.