China's power use up 5.7 pct in July

BEIJING, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- 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.

The Chinese economy has demonstrated resilience with stronger growth momentum in July, navigating through downside risks as more pro-growth policies have kicked in.

Last month, a broad range of key indicators maintained steady expansion, with production and demand on the rise, overall employment remaining stable, and new growth drivers building up.