National Development and Reform Commission announced on June 29 that China's power output will likely expand this month following an eight month contraction.

NDRC in a statement "Since June beginning, the recovering economy and high temperatures have brought about an obvious increase in China's power output.”

It said that "Eight provinces and autonomous regions, namely Hebei, Hubei, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Hainan and Xinjiang have consumed historically high amounts of electricity."

The NDRC's projection is in line with that of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission which estimated that China's power output will stop shrinking by the end of the second quarter.

China's power output has been shrinking since October 2008 due to the global economic downturn, particularly in the industrial sector. Power output in May alone fell by 2.7% on an annual basis to 283.9 billion kWh.

According to NDRC statistics, China's power output in the first five months of this year stood at 1.33 trillion kWh, representing a 3.2% decrease from the same period a year ago.


(Sourced from Interfax-China)