BEIJING -?China's rail freight volume recorded faster growth in July, the national railway operator said Wednesday.

Railways carried 246 million tons of cargo last month, up 17 percent year on year, up from a 15.5-percent growth in June, according to figures from the China Railway Corporation (CRC).

Freight by high-speed railway was up 70 percent year on year in July, the CRC said.

In the first seven months of the year, rail freight volume reached 1.7 billion tons, up 15.1 percent from a year earlier.

In July, industrial output, fixed-asset investment and consumption all posted slower expansion than in June, but electricity use saw stronger growth.

China posted GDP growth of 6.9 percent in Q2, flat with the previous quarter and above the government's annual growth target of around 6.5 percent.