BEIJING — China's energy intensity, the amount of energy consumed per unit of GDP, decreased 3.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.

The decline was faster than the target set in the government work report last month that energy consumption per unit of GDP should be cut by at least 3.4 percent in 2017.

China's energy consumption per unit of GDP fell by 5 percent last year, according to the report.

China's total energy consumption will be capped at 5 billion metric tons of coal equivalent by 2020, according to a government plan for 2016 to 2020. This will amount to a 15 percent reduction of energy use per unit of GDP by 2020.