BEIJING, Sept. 16 -- China's raw coal output rose 2 percent year on year to 380 million tonnes in August, official data showed.

The growth in production was 1.9 percentage points higher than that in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

China imported 44.33 million tonnes of coal last month, up 50.5 percent from the same period last year. The growth was 16.7 percentage points lower than that in July, the NBS said.

During the first eight months of this year, China's raw coal output stood at 3.05 billion tonnes, up 3.4 percent year on year, the data revealed.