China's production of energy dropped in the January-October period this year, according to the latest figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Total energy production in the first ten months amounted to 844. 73 million tons of standard coal equivalent, down 5.8 percent from the same 1998 period.

Production of coal dropped 9.0 percent to 784.07 million tons, while that of gasoline grew 8.9 percent to 30.22 million tons.

In the meantime, power output increased 6.4 percent to 983.20 billion kwh. The output of thermal power output amounted to 805.26 billion kwh, up 7.6 percent on an annual basis, and that of hydro- electric power output edged up 1.0 percent to 164.52 billion kwh.