BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's electricity consumption, an important indicator of economic activity, slowed sharply in 2014.

Power use rose 3.8 percent year on year to 5.52 trillion kilowatt hours in 2014, a sharp retreat from the 7.5-percent gain seen in the previous year, the National Energy Administration said Friday.

Zhou Dadi, vice director of the China Energy Research Society, attributed the slowdown to the country's ongoing industrial restructuring, especially in energy-consuming sectors.

Electricity use by primary industry went down 0.2 percent from a year earlier. Power consumption by secondary industry reached 4.06 trillion kwh, up 3.7 percent, while that by tertiary industry gained 6.4 percent to reach 666 billion kwh.

The data came as China is expected to register its weakest annual growth in more than 10 years for 2014.

In its working paper released in December, the central bank estimated the country's 2014 GDP growth at 7.4 percent. The official data are scheduled to be released by the National Bureau of Statistics next Tuesday.

As China embraces "new normal" growth, characterized by a slower rate of growth and higher quality, analysts expect GDP growth to slow further in coming years, which would in turn ease power use growth.

The Chinese economy is expected to grow 7.1 percent in 2015, 7 percent in 2016 and 6.9 percent in 2017 as the country's structural reforms, such as a gradual withdrawal of fiscal stimulus and continued prudential measures to slow non-bank credit expansion, will weigh on growth, according to the latest World Bank report.