South Korea's energy consumption sharply decreased in the first half of the year due to the economic slowdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to a report by the Korea Energy Economics Institute on Wednesday, the country's overall energy consumption came to 112-point-six million tons of oil equivalent(TOEs) in the first six months of the year, down three-point-six percent from the same period last year.

The sharp drop follows a point-six percent on-year decline for all of 2019, which was the first annual drop in ten years.

Industrial use of energy, which accounts for the largest part of the total, fell two-point-three percent on-year to 68-point-eight million TOEs in the first half.

Energy consumption, an indicator of the real economy, tends to move in step with the country's economic growth. South Korea's real gross domestic product shrank one-point-three percent in the first quarter from three months earlier. It then contracted three-point-two percent on-quarter in the second quarter.