China's power use up 5.8% in June

China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, recorded robust expansion in June, according to the official data released on Friday.

Power use climbed 5.8 percent year on year to 820.5 billion kilowatt-hours last month, according to the National Energy Administration's data.

Specifically, power consumed by primary and secondary industries went up 5.4 percent and 5.5 percent year on year, respectively. The tertiary sector power consumption went up 7.6 percent.

China's residential power use in June registered a 5.2 percent increase from the same period last year, hitting 116.6 billion kWh.

In the first half of this year, the country's power use climbed 8.1 percent to nearly 4.66 trillion kWh, the data showed.

China's gross domestic product grew 5 percent year on year to around 61.68 trillion yuan (US$8.65 trillion) in the first half, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Monday.

"Overall, the national economy has continued to improve in the first half in a stable manner," said an NBS spokesperson commenting on the economic performance, citing support from policy incentives, rebound in external demand and development of new quality productive forces.

Monday's data also showed that the country's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, expanded 5.3 percent year on year in June.