Workers check power grid device in Dingyuan county, Chuzhou city, East China's Anhui province, Feb 17, 2015. [Song Weixing / for China Daily]

BEIJING - China's electricity consumption rose at a faster pace in March as economic activity and residential demand picked up, data from the country's top economic planner showed on Wednesday.

Power consumption rose 5.6 percent year on year last month, reaching 476.2 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), said Zhao Chenxin, spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission, at a press conference.

The growth accelerated by 1.6 percentage points from February and improved markedly from a 2.2-percent contraction in March last year.

For the first quarter of 2016, power use increased 3.2 percent year on year to 1.35 trillion kWh, with the growth rate up 2.4 percentage points from the same period of last year, Zhao said.

He attributed the recovery to stronger demand in the service sector and households, which contributed to an increase of 3 percentage points in the first-quarter growth.

Power use by the service sector jumped 10.9 percent year on year in the first three months, up 4 percentage points from a year earlier. That by Chinese households gained 10.8 percent, up 8.2 percentage points.

The financial, real estate, catering and hotel industries all recorded faster increases in power consumption, according to Zhao.

Electricity used by the industrial sector climbed 0.2 percent in the first quarter, exiting negative territory but still at a relatively low level of growth, the spokesperson said.

Oil consumption also pointed to a stabilizing economy, with March consumption of refined oil rising 7.2 percent year on year, improving from January and February.

Diesel consumption, which reflects industrial and agricultural activity, went up 3 percent in March, compared with year-on-year drops in January and February, Zhao said.

China's economy expanded by 6.9 percent, the slowest pace in 25 years, in 2015. First-quarter economic data will be released later this week.