Electricity workers carry out field operations at a transformer substation during mid-June in Tahe, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Photo:China News

China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, rose 6.1 percent year on year in June as the impact of the novel coronavirus waned, data from the National Energy Administration (NEA) showed.

Total power use hit 635 billion kWh last month, NEA data showed.

Specifically, power use by the first and secondary industries rose 12.9 percent and 4.3 percent year on year, respectively, and that by the tertiary industry went up 7 percent from the same period a year ago.

Residential power consumption surged 14.3 percent year on year to 82.5 billion kWh during the period, said the NEA.

In the first half of this year, the country's power use fell 1.3 percent year on year to 3.35 trillion kWh.

The data came as a string of other economic indicators also showed signs of a rebound on the back of supporting policies to coordinate growth and COVID-19 containment.

China's gross domestic product expanded 3.2 percent year on year in the second quarter of 2020, following a 6.8 percent contraction in the first quarter, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.