China's power use up 5.4 pct in June

BEIJING, July 21 (Xinhua) -- China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, saw steady expansion in June, official data showed on Monday.

Power use rose 5.4 percent year on year in June to 867 billion kilowatt-hours, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA).

In June, power consumed by the primary and secondary industries rose 4.9 percent and 3.2 percent year on year to 13.3 billion kilowatt-hours and 548.8 billion kilowatt-hours, respectively, and power consumed by the tertiary sector increased 9 percent year on year to 175.8 billion kilowatt-hours.

The electricity consumption of the country's residents last month totaled 129.1 billion kilowatt-hours -- a year-on-year increase of 10.8 percent.

From January to June, China's total power use climbed 3.7 percent year on year to over 4.84 trillion kilowatt-hours.

In recent days, many regions across the country have been experiencing high temperatures. As a result, China's electricity consumption reached a historic high on July 16, with the national peak load hitting 1.506 billion kilowatts, the first time it has ever exceeded 1.5 billion kilowatts, the NEA data showed.