Poster: China's power use up 6.9% in May

China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, rose 6.9 percent year on year in May, official data showed on June 18, 2026.

Power use totaled 867.1 billion kilowatt-hours last month, according to the National Energy Administration.

A breakdown of the data showed that power consumed by the primary industry rose 5 percent year on year to 12.4 billion kilowatt-hours, while power consumed by the secondary industry increased 6 percent to 575.3 billion kilowatt-hours.

Within the secondary industry, industrial power use rose 6.2 percent year on year to 570.3 billion kilowatt-hours, while electricity consumption by high-tech equipment manufacturing climbed 12.2 percent to 109.1 billion kilowatt-hours.