China, the world's second-biggest consumer of energy, said electricity demand grew more slowly last year after the global recession curtailed exports and forced factories to shut.

Power consumption surged 5.2 percent to 3.43 billion megawatt-hours, down 9.6 percentage points from 2007, the Beijing-based China Electricity Council, which represents the nation's power producers, disclosed in a statement on its website yesterday.

(Shanghai Daily January 6, 2009)