BEIJING, Feb. 26 -- China's energy use in generating each dollar of gross domestic product fell 2.2 percent in 2009, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

The decline was well below a drop of 4.59 percent in 2008 and 4.2 percent in 2007.

China set a goal of cutting energy intensity -- the amount of fuel needed to generate each dollar of national income -- by 20 percent in the five years through 2010.

The Statistics Bureau also said that China consumed 3.1 billion tons of standard coal in 2009, up 6.3 percent from 2008.