China's power generation continues to expand, up 7.8 percent year on year in the first seven months of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

The growth was slower than the 8.3-percent expansion recorded in the January-June period.

Ongoing scorching weather and a high demand for electricity from industrial manufacturers propelled the rise in power generation.

In July, China generated about 640 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power, up 5.7 percent year on year. The daily power generation reached 20.65 billion kWh, the highest on record.

In breakdown, thermal power saw a slight increase of 4.3 percent year on year in July, yet the growth rate was down 2 percentage points month on month.

The growth rate of hydroelectricity picked up its pace and expanded 6 percent year on year, as the average rainfall increased 18.9 percent in July.

As for new energy power, wind, nuclear, and solar power generation increased 24.7 percent, 14.2 percent, 10.9 percent year on year, respectively.

The power generation data was released together with other energy indicators.

The output of raw coal amounted to almost 2 billion tonnes in the first seven months, up 3.4 percent year on year.

In July, coal imports surged to 29 million tonnes, the highest since January 2014.

Crude oil output saw a slight drop of 2.1 percent in the January-July period, reaching 109.95 million tonnes.

China picked up the pace in importing crude oil in July, from a 4.9 percent decrease to a 3.7 percent increase.

Gas output saw a 5.5 percent rise to 90.5 billion cubic meters in the first seven months this year.

Gas imports continued to grow at a high speed. From January to July, China imported 49.43 million tonnes of gas, an increase of 34.3 percent year on year.