China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planning agency, announced Thursday to raise the price of electricity for non-residential use by 2.8 cents (US$0.4 cents) per kilowatt hour on average nationwide, as of Friday.

Residential electricity prices would not be raised this time. However, they would be charged on a progressive basis in the future, which means prices increase with consumption, according to the NDRC.

China's power consumption in October rose 15.87 percent year on year to 313.42 billion kilowatt-hours, up for the 5th consecutive month since June.

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2009)