China's power use up 4% in February

BEIJING - China's power consumption rose 4 percent year on year in February, reaching 381 billion kilowatt hours (kwh), the National Energy Administration (NEA) said on Wednesday.

The pace of growth accelerated from the comparable decline of 6.3 percent for the same month last year.

In the first two months of the year, power consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, stood at 876 billion kwh, up two percent from one year earlier.

In the first two months, electricity consumption in the service sector rose 11.9 and primary industry by 6.7 percent increase, while use by secondary industry fell 2.1 percent.

Other macro indicators for the Jan-Feb period, including improved fixed-asset investment, house sales and consumption, also signal improvement in the economy.