BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China's raw coal output fell 3 percent year on year to 1noscratch.86 billion tonnes in the first five months of this year, official data showednoscratch.

In the January-May period, China's coal imports maintained fast growth, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

China imported 200 million tonnes of coal during the period, up 12.6 percent from the same period last year, the data revealed.

In May alone, the raw coal output stood at 380 million tonnes, down 0.8 percent year on year, but the decline was 2.1 percentage points narrower than in April.■