Power consumption in China rose for a second successive month in July, official data showed Friday, giving more hope that the world's third biggest economy is recovering from the global slump.
The six percent year on year increase, released by the National Development and Reform Commission, followed a 3.8 percent lift the previous month.
Before June demand had been falling continuously since October, according to previous media reports citing government data.
Despite the rise, electricity use in the first seven months was down 0.9 percent from the same period a year earlier, the commission, the nation's top economic planning agency, said in a statement.
The commission gave no reason for the recent increase but it came at the same time as a rebound in the industrial sector, which consumes more than 70 percent of the power in China.
Industrial output — a main gauge of activity in plants across China — rose 10.8 percent in July from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said this week, on top of a 10.7-percent hike in June.
China's economy expanded 7.9 percent in the second quarter, up from 6.1 percent in the first three months, mainly due to huge government stimulus measures to boost domestic spending to fend off the impact of the global slump.
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