(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-31 11:37

China's energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product dropped 2.78 percent in the first half of 2007 from the same period a year earlier, the government announced on Monday.

The government has set the target of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010. It fell 1.33 percent last year from the previous year, only one third of the four-percent target.

Larger enterprises had made bigger progress in energy saving, said the joint statement from the National Bureau of Statistics, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Office of the National Energy Leading Group.

The statement said energy consumption per unit of industrial output for the companies whose annual sales exceeded five million yuan fell by 3.87 percent.

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The government has encouraged the elimination of the often outdated, high energy-consuming, small production facilities in a bid to meet its energy saving target.

The power consumption per unit of GDP, however, climbed 3.64 percent year-on-year in the first six months, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, it said most high energy-consuming industries reported less energy consumption per unit of industrial output between January and June.

The energy consumption per unit of industrial output fell 7.76 percent year-on-year in the coal industry, 6.49 percent in the steel industry, 7.84 percent among construction materials producers, 5.17 percent in the chemicals industry and 2.57 percent among power companies.

The energy consumption per unit of industrial output, however, rose 1.27 percent in the oil and petrochemical industry and 1.58 percent among nonferrous metal producers.

The government should increase resources tax to encourage energy efficiency, said Justin Yifu Lin, chief of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University.

Analysts said the government had put off raising the resources tax amid worries that it would push up the already high inflation as companies passed the added cost to customers.

China's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, jumped by a 33-month-high of 4.4 percent in June, well above the government target of three percent for 2007.