(File photo)

"In the first nine months of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission approved 218 fixed asset investment projects, with a total investment of 1.8 trillion yuan, including 53 agricultural water conservancy projects, 84 transportation infrastructure projects, 33 high-tech and information projects, 25 energy projects and 23 social undertakings projects," Li Pumin, the secretary-general of National Development and Reform Commission said in the press conference on macro-economic operation data held by the National Development and Reform Commission on Thursday.

"The continuous promotion and implementation of fixed asset projects not only provide new impetus for stable economic growth, but also a solid foundation for long-term economic development," Li Pumin said.

Responding to a question about "the inconsistent growth between electricity consumption and GDP", Li said "the decrease in the needs of high energy-consuming industries and the stable development of the tertiary industry lead to lower electricity consumption supporting higher economic growth."

According to Li, the six industries of metallurgy, non-ferrous metal, chemical engineering, building materials, machinery and electric power are big consumers of electricity. Their electricity consumption accounted for 51 percent of the total, while only contributing about 20 percent of total GDP. Therefore their effect on electricity consumption is higher than on GDP.

Regardless of the speed of economic growth, the electricity consumption growth of the tertiary industry keeps stable. However, in recent years the tertiary industry has been developed continuously and it contributes more and more to GDP. This structural optimization changes the elastic coefficient between electricity consumption and GDP growth.

This article was edited and translated from 《1.8万亿为稳增长提供新动能》, source: People's Daily.