The growth of electricity consumption by Korea's industrial sector slowed in April from a year earlier due mainly to less working days and weaker exports, the government said Monday.

Sales of industrial electricity moved up just 1.7 percent on-year to 21.22 billion kilowatt-hours in the cited month, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The gain marks a slowdown from a 9.1 percent increase a year earlier, although total output rose from 20.86 billion kilowatt-hours.

Power output, however, fell slightly from 21.94 billion kilowatt-hours tallied in March.

"South Korea had a parliamentary election in April, which was a holiday and affected number of working days in the month, while negative growth in exports affected electricity consumption," the ministry said.

Industrial electricity sales serve as a barometer of general economic activity as companies use more electricity when business is good and cut back to cope with drops in demand.

Asia's fourth-largest economy reported a 4.8 percent on-year contraction in outbound shipments last month from weak demand for ships, information technology equipment and consumer electronic products. It shipped $46.19 billion worth of goods in the cited month.

For the first four months of this year, industrial electricity sales gained 3.5 percent on-year to 85.89 billion kilowatt-hours.

Industrial electricity sales serve as a barometer of industrial activity as companies use more electricity when business is good and cut back to cope with drops in demand.

Overall sales of electricity moved up 2.0 percent on-year to 38.49 billion kilowatt-hours last month as power consumption by offices, shops, educational facilities and homes all rose due unseasonably warm weather, the ministry said. The average temperature of the country's five major cities stood at 13.2 C, up from 11.8 C reported for the year before. (Yonhap)