BEIJING - China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, went up 6.8 percent year-on-year in September, as the country's economy further recovers, official data showed Wednesday.

Total power use came in at 694.7 billion kWh last month, the National Energy Administration said.

In September, power consumption by the primary and secondary industries rose by 14.9 percent and 6 percent from a year ago, respectively, while that used by the tertiary industry jumped by 12.1 percent year-on-year.

Residential power consumption saw a yearly increase of 3.7 percent last month.

In the first nine months of this year, China's power consumption totaled 6.17 trillion kWh, up 12.9 percent year-on-year, the data showed.