BEIJING, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, rose 4.5 percent year on year in the first eight months of 2019, the country's top economic planner said Wednesday.
Power use by the secondary industry increased by 3 percent, and that by the tertiary industry 8.8 percent, according to Meng Wei, a spokesperson with the National Development and Reform Commission.
Some 28 provincial regions saw a growth in electricity consumption, with the use in four regions expanding over 10 percent, Meng said.
In August alone, the country's power use grew 3.6 percent year on year, 0.9 percentage points higher than that in July, according to Meng.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that China's power generation climbed 1.7 percent year on year to 668.2 billion kilowatt-hours in August, a faster growth than the 0.6-percent rate recorded in July.
In the January-August period, power generation rose 2.8 percent year on year to 4.7 trillion kilowatt-hours, the NBS data showed.
