BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) -- China's electricity consumption picked up in April with a 7.8 percent year-on-year growth, official data showed Monday.

Electricity consumption stood at 521.7 billion kilowatt-hours last month, according to the National Energy Administration.

The 7.8-percent increase was faster than the 3.6-percent growth recorded in March.

In April, electricity use in the service and agriculture sectors both rose 10.8 percent year-on-year, with the industrial sector seeing an increase of 7.2 percent.

Total electricity use in the Jan.-April period totaled 2.1 trillion kilowatt-hours, growing 9.3 percent from the same period last year.

The new data was unveiled a day before China releases a slew of key economic indicators for April, with analysts expecting a broad recovery in industrial output, investment and consumption in the world's second largest economy.