13-03-99 China suffered an annual drop of 3.8 % in the production of energy last year, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Total energy output in 1998 stood at 1.223 bn tons of standard coal equivalent, of which 120 mm tons were produced in December, the bureau said.
Production of coal dropped 5.5 % to 1.236 bn tons, that of crude oil dipped 0.1 % to 162.6 mm tons and that of natural gas dropped by 0.6 % to 22.3 bn cm.
Meanwhile, the output of electricity increased by 2.7 % to 1.14 trillion kWh. In a breakdown, it consisted of 929 bn kWh of thermal power, up 1.8 %; 195 bn kWh of hydro- electric power, up 5.6 %; and 14.1 bn kWh of nuclear power, down 2.1 %.