BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) -- China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, rose 6.9 percent year on year in May, official data showed Thursday.
Power use totaled 867.1 billion kilowatt-hours last month, according to the National Energy Administration.
A breakdown of the data showed that power consumed by the primary industry rose 5 percent year on year to 12.4 billion kilowatt-hours, while power consumed by the secondary industry increased 6 percent to 575.3 billion kilowatt-hours.
Within the secondary industry, industrial power use rose 6.2 percent year on year to 570.3 billion kilowatt-hours, while electricity consumption by high-tech equipment manufacturing climbed 12.2 percent to 109.1 billion kilowatt-hours.
Power use by the tertiary industry reached 170.4 billion kilowatt-hours in May, up 9.7 percent year on year. The charging and battery swapping service sector and internet data services reported rapid growth in electricity consumption, rising 59.9 percent and 45.4 percent, respectively.
Residential electricity consumption rose 7.5 percent from a year earlier to 109 billion kilowatt-hours.
In the first five months of the year, China's total power use reached 4,201.8 billion kilowatt-hours, up 5.7 percent year on year, the data showed. ■
