China generated 286.73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in March, down 0.71 percent from the same period last year, according to statistics released on Wednesday by China National Power Dispatching and Communication Center (CNPDCC).

Hydropower went up 27.25 percent to reach 34.55 billion kilowatt hours, while thermal and nuclear power declined 3.41 percent and 12.69 percent, respectively, to 247.03 billion and 5.15 billion kilowatt hours, said CNPDCC.

As a major barometer of economic performance, the combined power generation in January and February reached 488.3 billion kilowatt hours, down 3.7 percent.

Xue Jing, head of the statistics department of China Electricity Council said the reason for the trend is still unclear, and the fall in power generation has not bottomed out.

The increased power generation might be led by higher heating demands as a result of cold currents for this month. It could not be evidence of recovery in real economy, said Xue.

Judging from the output of downstream industries such as steel and non-ferrous metals, no significant sign of recovery was shown, said Xue.

Niu Li, deputy director of the Macroeconomic Research Department, believed that the figure indicated the economy was warming up.

"It fit well with the March Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) of China's manufacturing sector, which rose for the fourth straight month to 52.4 percent," said Niu.

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2009)