The National Energy Administration (NEA) announced Thursday that the country's electrical power consumption rose 9.1 percent from a year earlier in August.

Power use reached 434.3 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) in August, the NEA said in a statement on its website. The growth rate declined 2.7 percentage points month-on-month, according to the statement.

Power consumption is one of the key indicators of China's economic growth. Analysts said the lowered power consumption suggests a slowdown in China's economy.

Government data showed earlier this month that the country's industrial value-added output grew 13.5 percent from a year earlier in August, down 0.5 percentage points from that of July.

The NEA statement said electricity consumption totaled 3.12 trillion kwh in the first eight months of this year, up 11.9 percent year-on-year.

During the period, power consumption by the country's primary industries rose 4.7 percent year-on-year to reach 70.6 billion kwh; power use in secondary industries totaled 2.34 trillion kwh, up 11.8 percent; consumption in tertiary industries climbed 14.6 percent to reach 336.5 billion kwh.

Meanwhile, consumption by residents in both urban and rural areas rose 11.4 percent to 373 billion kwh.

Power generated by China's newly-built power plants reached 47.84 million kw during the January-August period, of which 8.17 million kw was hydro-generated and 32.24 million was coal-fire generated.

China Electricity Council predicted in February that the country's total electricity consumption in 2011 will rise 12 percent over last year to reach 4.7 trillion kwh.