China's power use grows steadily in July

BEIJING - China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, grew 2.3 percent year-on-year in July due to the accelerated resumption of businesses, data from the National Energy Administration showed.

Total power use hit 682.4 billion kWh last month.

In breakdown, the agricultural sector consumed 8.5 billion kWh, up 11.6 percent from a year ago. Power consumption of the secondary industry fell 0.7 percent year-on-year, while that of the tertiary industry rose 5.3 percent.

Residential power use jumped 13.8 percent year-on-year to 98.2 billion kWh last month.

During the first seven months of the year, the country's total power use decreased 0.7 percent from a year earlier to 4.04 trillion kWh.