Chart of the Day: Chinese Electricity Consumption Growth Hits 6-Year High

China’s electricity consumption surged to 6.84 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2018, up 8.5% year-on-year, according to data released by the China Electricity Council (CEC) on Tuesday (link in Chinese). The growth rate for 2018 was 1.9 percentage points higher than in 2017 and marked the highest level since 2012.

The growth momentum of electricity consumption diverged from China’s economic slowdown, which saw the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) fall to 6.6% in 2018, down 0.2 percentage points from 2017, marking the slowest annual expansion since 1990, according to official data.