China's economic performance improves: Official

BEIJING - Chinese economy has improved in August with better indicators including power consumption, rail freight transportation and home market, an official said on Saturday.

China electricity consumption in August went up 2.47 percent year on year, said Li Yangzhe, head of bureau of economic operations regulation under National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The growth rate was 5.88 percentage points higher than in the equivalent period last year and 4.47 percentage points higher than in July, marking the highest monthly growth this year.

The increase was backed by figures from key provincial regions.

In August, public power consumption in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Jiangxi and Guangdong rose 8.4 percent, 8.7 percent, 8.3 percent and 2 percent higher than in August 2014 respectively.

Meanwhile, rail freight companies shifted 1.6 percent more cargo in August this year than July, said Li.

China's real estate market continued warming in August, with new home prices rising for the first time year on year following 10-month year-on-year drops thanks to governmental policy supports. The average price per square meter in a sample of 100 cities rose 0.15 percent year on year to 10,787 yuan (1,696 U.S. dollars) in August, according to a survey by the China Index Academy, an independent research institute.

The real estate market took a downturn in 2014 due to weak demand and a surplus of unsold homes. The cooling has continued into 2015, with both sales and prices falling and investment slowing.

A Fitch Ratings' report on China's "new normal" published on Friday also said that "pessimism over China's short-term outlook is overdone and a growth pick-up in the second half is already in the pipeline."

But Fitch also expects more volatility around the new normal of slower growth, both in real economic activity and in financial markets.