Major power producers generated only 250.3 million megawatt hours of electricity last month, falling 13 percent from a year earlier, the China Daily reported, citing the China Electricity Council, an industry association.

This is the fourth consecutive month that electricity generation in the country declined.

Government figures showed that China's electricity output started to fall in October last year, when the figure fell by four percent compared to the previous year, followed by a decline of 9.6 percent in November and 7.9 percent in December.

Power demand is seen as a barometer of China's economy as much of the country's growth relies on power-intensive industries such as metals and chemicals, the newspaper said.

Electricity consumption nationwide rose by 5.2 percent last year to 3.4 billion megawatt hours, sharply down from 14.8 percent in 2007 and marking the slowest growth since 2000, official data and Chinese media reports said.

Experts said the drop in power generation last month was linked partly to weak demand during the Lunar New Year, which fell on January 26 this year, as many industrial plants stopped production, according to the China Daily.

But the China Electricity Council has warned the first two quarters of 2009 will be the most difficult for the power sector and power demand will continue to fall in the first half before picking up in the third quarter, it said.

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