April 16, China’s electricity consumption in the first quarter grew at a much slower pace than a year earlier, extending concerns over a slowdown in the country’s economy, the official Shanghai Securities News reported on Monday.

For the first quarter of this year, electricity consumption added only 6.8 percent from a year ago to 1.1655 trillion kilowatt-hours, the paper said, citing data from the National Energy Administration (NEA). The growth rate was 5.9 percentage points lower than in the same period a year earlier.

The year-on-year grow of power usage was lower than that of gross domestic product over the same period, showing China’s economic slowdown has not bottomed out, the paper said, citing an unnamed expert.

From January to March, electricity consumption by primary industries dipped 3 percent year-on-year, power used by secondary industries expanded 4.5 percent, while tertiary industries’ power consumption added 13 percent year-on-year, according to the NEA.

China’s economy expanded 8.1 percent annually in the first 3 months of this year.

In Q1, China added 1.27 million kilowatt-hours of hydropower and 6.49 million kilowatt-hours of thermal power, according to the NEA.