SHENZHEN posted positive growth of its GDP in the first half of this year to 1.26 trillion yuan (US$180 billion), up 0.1 percent year-on-year, according to statistics released by the Shenzhen Municipal Statistics Bureau yesterday.
The positive growth was hailed as a hard-earned result of the city, whose economy shrank by 6.6 percent in the first quarter, the worst in its 40-year history, due to the impact of COVID-19.
Within H1, the added value of the first industry and second industry dropped by 8.1 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, to 1.2 billion yuan and 455.3 billion yuan. But the added value to the tertiary industry increased by 1.7 percent to 806.8 billion yuan, turning the downward trend.
Statistics released by the Shenzhen Municipal Industry and Information Bureau showed from January to June the industrial added value of enterprises at or above designated level dropped by 1.6 percent over the same period of last year. But compared with the first quarter, the decline was narrowed by 12.1 percentage points, showing the city’s strong resilience and a better performance than other cities in Guangdong Province and other first-tier cities.
Among the 36 segmented industries in the manufacturing sector, 10 industries realized positive growth. The added value of electronic information increased by 1.7 percent in H1. The added value of textiles, benefiting from the increased capacity of mask production, increased by 316 percent, and that of equipment manufacturing increased by 5.6 percent, thanks to the sales of medical equipment like ventilators.
In advanced manufacturing, the added value increased by 2.4 percent year-on-year, and in high-tech manufacturing, it increased by 2.2 percent, statistics showed.
The investments in fixed assets in H1 increased by 7.8 percent year-on-year, 23.9 percent higher than Q1.
The shrinking of total retail sales of consumer goods also narrowed by 8.1 percentage points over Q1. Compared to H1 last year, total retail sales of consumer goods dropped by 14.8 percent to 364 billion yuan.
Customs statistics showed the city’s H1 trade dropped by 0.5 percent to 1.33 trillion yuan. Exports dropped by 5.9 percent to 715 billion yuan and imports increased by 6.5 percent to 620 billion yuan.
By contrast, Guangdong saw its GDP growth down 2.5 percent year-on-year in H1 to 4.92 trillion yuan, due in large part to foreign trade, a large chunk of its GDP, which decreased by 7.1 percent year-on-year.
In June, Guangdong’s major economic indexes all improved with fixed-asset investment hitting a new high since January.
Of the 30 provinces and municipalities that have released GDP growth data, 16 reported positive growth. Guangdong took the lead on the list, followed by Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang and Henan.