(Yicai Global) Sept. 15 -- China's total electricity consumption rose 6.4 percent annually last month, and dropped 3.5 percent from July, National Development and Reform Commission Policy Research Office spokesman Meng Wei said today at a press conference on macroeconomic performance.

The non-ferrous metal, iron and steel sector, the power production and supply industry, and other some businesses reduced their consumption compared with the previous month, Meng said.

China's overall power consumption is an important index for measuring the country's economy.

Power consumption for the first eight months of the year went up 6.8 percent annually, growing 2.6 percentage points over the same period last year, per NDRC data.

The consumption of the primary industry providing production materials and manufacturing-oriented secondary industry increased by 8.5 percent and 6.1 percent, with growth rate increases of 3.4 percentage points and 4.1 percentage points, respectively.

The electricity consumption of the service-oriented tertiary industry and residents increased by 10.4 percent and 6.8 percent, with growth rate decreases of 0.6 percentage point and 2.9 percentage points, respectively.

Information transmission, computer services and software, and other tertiary industry sectors used an increasing amount of power, posting a growth rate 8.0 percentage points higher than that put up by society as a whole.