Manufacturing, services power up electricity consumption in 2018

Electricity consumption in China, a key indicator of economic activity, reached 6.84 trillion kilowatt-hours in 2018, an increase of 8.5 percent year-on-year, according to the China Electricity Council.

Electricity consumption hit a six-year high since 2012, with a year-on-year growth of 1.9 percent. This is against the backdrop that China's year-on-year GDP growth reached 6.6 percent in 2018, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Yu Chongde, vice-president of the China Electricity Council, said the rapid growth rate is due to the strong growth of power consumption in China's manufacturing industry and service sector, while China's ongoing campaign to switch from coal to electricity, part of the country's efforts to clean up pollution, also contributed to the rapid growth of power use.