China's energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) value continued to fall last year, as a result of the country's efforts to make energy use more efficient and cut pollution, official figures show.

The energy consumption for every 10,000 yuan (US$1,429) of China's GDP stood at 1.16 tonnes of coal equivalent in 2007, down 3.66 percent from the year 2006, the National Bureau of Statistics, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and National Energy Administration under the NDRC said in a statement Monday.

The indicator for 2006 was 1.204 tonnes of coal equivalent, 1.79 percent lower than that in 2005.

In 2005, China's energy consumption per unit of GDP was just more than three times the level of the United States, more than five times that of Germany and eight times that of Japan.

Beijing saw the energy use per unit of GDP shrink 6.04 percent last year, the biggest drop among all provincial jurisdictions, as the Chinese capital strove for energy efficiency and clean environment ahead of the Olympics.

Southern China's Hainan Province had the smallest reduction of 0.8 percent in the indicator.

China has set a target of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent and major pollutant emission by 10 percent by the year 2010 from the levels in 2005.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2008)