BEIJING — China's raw coal output rose 25 percent year-on-year to 620 million metric tons in the first two months of 2021, official data showed.

The Jan-Feb figure represents a 17.1-percent growth compared with the level in the same period of 2019, as well as annual average growth of 8.2 percent over the past two years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The country imported 41.13 million tons of coal in the first two months, down 39.5 percent year-on-year, NBS data showed.