Why is electricity consumption inconsistent with economic growth in China?

Abstract

Studies have indicated that there exists a relatively stable and positive correlation between electricity consumption and economic growth and there should not be a large deviation between them. However, the deviation between electricity consumption and economic growth in China during the Asian Financial Crisis and Global Economic Crisis sparks intense debates. We attempt to explain the deviation from the perspective of inventory investment adjustment in the business cycle using the SVAR model in this paper. The results show that the effects of inventory investment adjustment shock and electricity consumption structure shock on the deviation are positive but tend to be negative for electricity efficiency shock. The results of historical decomposition of these shocks also show that the inventory investment adjustment shock is the main factor that influences the deviation during the Global Economic Crisis. Economic fluctuation in the short term can not change the economic development pattern and the characteristics of electricity demand. Once the economy returns to stable growth, the deviation between electricity consumption and economic growth will shrink and disappear soon.