The goal of this paper is to undertake a panel data investigation of long-run Granger causality between electricity consumption and real GDP for seven panels, which together consist of 93 countries. We use a new panel causality test and find that in the long-run both electricity consumption and real GDP have a bidirectional Granger causality relationship except for the Middle East where causality runs only from GDP to electricity consumption. Finally, for the G6 panel the estimates reveal a negative sign effect, implying that increasing electricity consumption in the six most industrialised nations will reduce GDP. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.