Power consumption down 4% in first quarter

Electricity usage dropped at a slower pace in China during the first quarter of this year, thanks to the government's stimulus package which has helped boost industrial production.

China's electricity consumption fell 4 percent to 781 billion kWh while power supply of the country's major power grid fell 3.3 percent to 680 billion kWh in the first quarter from a year earlier, the China Electricity Council (CEC) said in a statement yesterday.

Power consumption fell 5.2 percent to 497.2 billion kWh while power generation declined 3.7 percent to 488.3 billion kWh in the first two months compared to the same period last year, said the National Bureau of Statistics on March 12.