China's electricity consumption up 7.5 pct in March
CGTN
["china"]
China's electricity consumption hit 573.2 billion kWh last month, up 7.5 percent year-on-year, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA).
Power use by the agricultural industry, the manufacturing industry and the service industry reached five billion kWh, 388.4 billion kWh and 86.9 billion kWh, up 3.9 percent, 6.3 percent and 9.9 percent year-on-year, respectively.
The total power use in the first three months reached about 1.68 trillion kWh, an increase of 5.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the NEA.
The household electricity consumption in urban and rural areas increased by 11.0 percent to 283 billion kWh during the January to March period.
Last month, the country's manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) reached 50.5, rising 1.3 percentage points compared to the previous month. Industrial output increased 8.5 percent year-on-year, a record-high since July 2014.