Power consumption grows 7.5% in 2013

China's electricity consumption, an indicator of economic activity, reached 5.32 trillion kilowatt-hours in 2013, an increase of 7.5 percent year-on-year, the National Energy Administration said on Tuesday.

The growth is 2 percentage points higher than in 2012, according to a statement on the administration's website.

In 2013, power used by the service sector was about 627.3 billion kWh with growth of 10.3 percent year-on-year, while for the agricultural sector, about 101.4 billion kWh was consumed, up 0.7 percent from the previous year. The industrial sector used 7 percent more with total electricity consumption of 3.9 trillion kWh, the statement said.

China's economic growth increased by 7.7 percent in the first nine months of 2013, higher than the government's full-year target of 7.5 percent, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. The country is scheduled to release its annual economic growth rate next Monday.