BEIJING — China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, dropped by 7.8 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2020, while recovery gained visible momentum since the beginning of this month, according to the top economic planner.

Specifically, power use by the secondary and tertiary industries was down by 12 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively, and that by the first industry grew 3.9 percent from the same period a year ago, said Meng Wei, a spokeswoman with the National Development and Reform Commission.

Eight provincial-level regions registered growth, with electricity consumption in Inner Mongolia and Yunnan up by over 5 percent.

Meng said both indicators of power generation and consumption had posted faster growth in March. National electricity output reached 17.8 billion kWh on March 16, marking a 9.9 percent rise from the 16.2 billion kWh registered at the end of February.

New data on electricity use pointed to highly recovered vitality across sectors. The nonferrous metals industry saw power use back to the normal level of last year, while the pharmaceutical, chemical and electronic industries saw their electricity use back to 90 percent of the normal level.