BEIJING (AFP) – China's overall energy output rose nine percent on-year in the first nine months of 2009, state media reported Tuesday, in another sign its emergence from the global slump is picking up steam.

Energy output from January to September totaled 2.01 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, as production ramped up along with the recovering economy, the People's Daily said, citing the National Energy Administration.
The increase in energy output “further proved industrial production had picked up ... and is in line with the third-quarter economic growth,” Jason Xu, a Beijing-based analyst with China International Capital Corporation, told AFP.
The world's third-largest economy grew by 8.9 percent on-year in the third quarter after expanding 7.9 percent in the second and 6.1 percent in the first three months of the year -- the slowest rate in more than a decade.
Government officials have said the country would have no problem meeting the full-year goal of eight percent growth, a threshold seen as vital to support job creation and stave off social unrest.
The National Energy Administration forecast energy production in the fourth quarter would continue to rise, albeit at a modest pace, due to the low base effect last year.
Standard coal equivalent is a unit measuring energy generated by burning one ton of coal.
One ton of standard coal equivalent is equal to 1.4 tons of coal, 0.7 tons of crude oil or 751.9 cubic meters of natural gas.
China's energy mix includes coal, oil, electricity and natural gas and the latest data is the first time the government has published a report on overall energy output, according to the newspaper.
Photo: Steam belches from a water cooling tower at a Beijing power plant. (AFP/File/Frederic J. Brown)