The nation's stimulus package has benefited energy conservation and emission controls with energy used to generate growth dropping further in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.

Energy intensity, or the amount of energy needed to generate per unit of GDP, dropped 2.89 percent year on year from January to March. That compares with a drop of 2.62 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

Overall energy consumption grew only 3.04 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier while the economy expanded 6.1 percent, the bureau said in a statement.