BEIJING — China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, is expected to grow by about 3 percent year-on-year in 2020, according to an estimate from the State Grid Energy Research Institute.

In the fourth quarter, China's electricity consumption is forecast to grow by about 8 percent, the institute said.

Due to the impact caused by COVID-19, China's power use in the first quarter fell by 6.5 percent year-on-year. As the country managed to contain the spread of the virus and economic activities picked up, its power use has rebounded since April. In August, the growth of power use reached 7.7 percent year-on-year.

In the first ten months of this year, the country's power use increased by 1.8 percent year-on-year to 6.03 trillion kWh, data from the National Energy Administration (NEA) showed.

Notably, electricity consumption in the primary industry maintained relatively high growth thanks to the country's poverty relief measures and rural vitalization efforts. In the first ten months, the sector's power use grew by 9.7 percent year-on-year.

In the secondary industry, electricity use in high-tech and equipment manufacturing has been increasing noticeably, evidenced by a 10.8-percent growth in the third quarter.

Also, as people spend more time at home during the COVID-19 epidemic, residential electricity use in urban and rural areas has been on the rise. Between January and October, it grew by 5.9 percent year-on-year.

NEA data showed that China's power use stood at 7.23 trillion kWh in 2019, up by 4.5 percent year-on-year.