UPDATE 1-Chinese power producers jump on tariff outlook

(Adds other power producers, economist comments)

HONG KONG/BEIJING, April 24 (Reuters) - Shares in Chinese power producers jumped on Thursday as executives and investors expect the government to raise power tariffs as early as the third quarter of this year.

Chinese power producers are boosting electricity generation to meet growing demand from the world's second-largest electricity consumer, after the United States.

But their margins have been squeezed by record high coal prices and government-capped tariffs.

Top electricity provider Huaneng Power International (0902.HK) on Tuesday posted an 80 percent fall in first-quarter earnings as its unit fuel cost rose 26 percent year-on-year.

Analysts expect Datang Power (0991.HK) (601991.SS) and Huadian Power (1071.HK) (600027.SS) to post similarly weak first-quarter earnings.

With more than 70 percent of power firms now in the red, officials and investors expect the government to provide help.

China Resources Power (0836.HK) Chairman Wang Shuaiting expects a 4 to 5 percent power tariff hike in the third quarter of this year, a local newspaper reported.

Shares in China Resources Power jumped as much as 19 percent on Thursday, while Huaneng jumped more than 10 percent and Datang rose 9 percent.

Zhu Baoliang, chief economist at the State Information Centre, a think-tank under China's planning agency, told a conference on Thursday that liberalisation of electricity prices was still on the agenda but not until inflation had moderated.

Zhu said power a tariff hike might be possible by November or December, assuming inflation comes down in the second half of the year.

Consumer price inflation dipped to 8.3 percent in March from a near 12-year high of 8.7 percent in February, but officials have said it would be tough to meet the government's goal of holding year-average inflation to last year's rate of 4.8 percent. (Reporting by Judy Hua and Lucy Hornby; Editing by Edmund Klamann)