(Yicai) Oct. 24 -- China's power consumption went on expanding in the first three quarters of this year, reflecting the robust vitality in China's industrial production, consumption, and investment when coupled with other recent positive economic indicators, which highlight the increasing strength of internal factors in driving economic growth.

Electricity use in China jumped 4.6 percent to 7.77 trillion kilowatt-hours in the nine months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier, according to data released by the National Energy Administration yesterday. In addition, the figure rose 4.5 percent to 888.6 billion kWh last month from a year ago.

Power consumption rose 2.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, 4.9 percent in the second quarter, and 6.1 percent in the third quarter. The figure exceeded one trillion kWh in both July and August, the first time for any country worldwide to report such a level in two consecutive months.

High temperatures have driven electricity demand, along with the implementation of macro policies and economic recovery, which are the primary reasons for the significant increase in electricity use during July and August, said Jiang Debin, deputy director of the China Electricity Council's statistics and data center.

The secondary industry remained the main power consumer in the third quarter, with its use jumping 5.1 percent and accounting for 51 percent of the overall growth. Electricity consumption in the industrial and manufacturing sectors rose 5.4 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively, a significant improvement from the second quarter. ​

Other signs of endogenous growth in China include the express delivery volume jumping 17 percent to 145.08 billion packages in the first nine months of this year from a year earlier, while the number of goods moved by railroads rose 3.4 percent to 3.03 billion tons, according to official figures.

In addition, Excavator sales in China surged 25 percent to 19,858 units last month from a year ago, according to data by the China Construction Machinery Association. ​

Demand for infrastructure in emerging markets worldwide will continue to grow in the medium to long term, according to Donghai Securities. The Chinese government keeps promoting its subsidy policies for the upgrading of old equipment, stimulating the release of downstream renewal demand.

Investment will remain an important driver of economic growth in the future, said Lu Donghong, an associate research fellow at Renmin University of China's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies. It will likely stabilize and rebound this quarter due to policy effects continuing to take hold, Lu added.

Editor: Martin Kadiev