Edited and translated by Ma Xi, People's Daily Online
The electricity consumption of the whole society reached more than 5 trillion kilowatt hours in 2012, with a year-on-year increase of 5.5 percent, but the increasing rate fell 6.2 percent compared with 2011, according to data released by the National Energy Administration on Jan. 14.
The electricity consumption of the whole society in 2011 experienced a year-on-year growth of 11.7 percent, as opposed to 5.5 percent in 2012. As the leading indicator of economic operation in China, the electricity consumption data demonstrate that the overall increasing speed of China’s economy had slowed down last year, especially in the manufacture industry.
According to the data, the electricity consumption in the primary industry amounted to 101.3 billion kilowatt hours, 3.7 trillion kilowatt hours in the secondary industry and 569 billion kilowatt hours in the tertiary industry; the electricity consumption of residents in rural and urban area reached about 621.9 billion kilowatt hours last year.
From the viewpoint of classifying the electricity consumption, the gross industrial electricity consumption in China reached more than 3,606 billion kilowatt hours, 608.3 billion kilowatt hours and 2,997.8 billion kilowatt hours in light industry and heavy industry respectively.
Information displays that the electricity consumption in the secondary industry is the largest motive power of the increase of the whole society electricity consumption in China, amounting for 73 percent of the contribution rate. The fluctuation of the electricity consumption is greatly related to the high electricity consumption industry like metallurgy, nonferrous metal, chemical engineering and building material industry.
Analyst Dai Bin said the increasing speed of electricity consumption in heavy industry accounted for 12.6 percent in 2011, but 3. 8 percent in 2012. It is an indication of the depression of the heavy industry.
Read the Chinese version: 全社会用电去年增5.5%
Source:Beijing Times
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