BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- China's raw coal output posted faster growth in March, driven by policies to increase production and supply, official data showed.
The output jumped 14.8 percent year on year to 396 million tonnes last month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The growth rate was 4.5 percentage points higher than that of the January-February period, the bureau said.
Meanwhile, coal imports continued to shrink. China imported 16.42 million tonnes of coal last month, down 39.9 percent year on year.
For the first quarter, the country's raw coal output rose 10.3 percent year on year to 1.08 billion tonnes, while imports dropped 24.2 percent to 51.81 million tonnes.
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