BEIJING - China's power generation saw faster growth in September than August, with electricity from clean energy sources expanding at rapid pace, official data showed Thursday.

Last month, power production rose 5.3 percent, 0.5 percentage point faster than August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

Electricity from hydropower plants rose 18.6 percent, higher than the 5 percent increase in August, due to sufficient water supply in southern regions.

Nuclear, wind and solar power production surged by 21.9 percent, 36.8 percent and 25.2 percent respectively, all much faster than August.

In the first three quarters, power generation rose 6.4 percent to 4.69 trillion kWh.

The NBS also reported strong growth in the production of a number of energy sources in September.

Coal output increased 7.6 percent to 300 million tons, faster than the 4.1 percent year-on-year growth in August. Natural gas output rose 10.7 percent to 11.15 billion cubic meters last month.

Crude oil output dropped 2.9 percent, narrowing by 0.2 percentage points from August.

NBS data also showed that China's GDP expanded 6.8 percent year on year in the third quarter, compared with 6.9 percent in the second quarter.

The growth rate for the first three quarters was 6.9 percent, well above the government's target for the year of around 6.5 percent.