BEIJING — China's raw coal output rose 8.8 percent year-on-year to 1.62 billion tons in the first five months of 2021, official data showed.

The January-May volume increased by 9.8 percent from the level in the same period of 2019, putting the annual average growth of the past two years at 4.8 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The country imported 111.17 million tons of coal from January to May, down 25.2 percent year-on-year.

In May alone, China's coal output edged up 0.6 percent from a year earlier to 330 million tons, NBS data showed.