BEIJING: China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, recorded robust expansion in June, Xinhua News Agency reported. According to the official data released by the National Energy Administration, power use climbed 5.8 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 820.5 million megawatt-hours (MWh) last month. Specifically, power consumed by primary and secondary industries went up 5.4 percent and 5.5 percent YoY, 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 million MWh. In the first half of this year, the country's power use climbed 8.1 percent to nearly 4.66 billion MWh, the data showed. China's gross domestic product grew 5 percent YoY to around CH¥61.68 trillion (about US$8.65 trillion) in the first half, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 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. Source: Emirates News Agency