BEIJING - China's electricity consumption increased 6.8 percent from a year earlier to 416.5 billion kilowatt hours in April, the National Energy Administration said on Tuesday.

The growth rate, widely used as a barometer to measure economic activity, indicated an upward trend, as it accelerated from March's 2-percent growth and a 12.5-percent decrease in February, NEA data showed.

In the first four months of 2013, the country consumed a total of 1.63 trillion kwh of power, a rise of 4.9 percent compared to a year ago, the NEA said.

During the period, electricity consumed by the service industry increased the most, up 9.1 percent from last year, followed by 4.7 percent in the secondary industry and 1.5 percent in the primary industry. Residential power use climbed 2.4 percent.

China added 18.72 million kilowatts of power production capacity in the first four months, including 3.97 million kilowatts of hydropower and 11 million kilowatts of thermal power, the NEA added.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics issued on Monday showed that electricity output growth picked up from the 2.1-percent growth in March, rising 6.2 percent year on year to 399.4 billion kwh in April.

Other key economic data for April released by the bureau indicated weak growth.

China's first-quarter economic growth unexpectedly slowed to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent during the final quarter of 2012, sapping expectations for a strong rebound.