From Chinadaily
China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, recorded robust expansion in July, according to the official data released on Thursday.
Power use climbed 5.7 percent year-on-year to 939.6 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) last month, according to the National Energy Administration's data.
Specifically, power consumed by primary and secondary industries went up 1.5 percent and 5 percent year-on-year, respectively. The tertiary sector power consumption went up 7.8 percent.
China's residential power use in July registered a 5.9 percent increase from the same period last year, hitting 172.7 billion kWh.
In the first seven months of this year, the country's power use climbed 7.7 percent to nearly 5.6 trillion kWh, the data showed.