Shanghai’s economy gathers pace as GDP expands by 6.9% in H1

SHANGHAI’S economy grew 6.9 percent year on year in the first half, up from 6.8 percent in the first quarter and also 0.1 percentage points higher than the national growth rate, the Shanghai Statistics Bureau said yesterday.

Gross Domestic Product hit 1.56 trillion yuan (US$234 billion) in the six months ended June 30, with services accounting for 69.2 percent, or 1.08 trillion yuan — up 7.4 percent year on year.

Gross industrial output value of enterprise above designated size rose 5.2 percent to 1.7 trillion yuan.

Of the city’s six key industrial sectors, the output of automobile manufacturing rose 12.3 percent year on year and that of biomedical producers gained 15 percent. The output of complete equipment manufacturing and electronic information product manufacturing also rose, up 4.2 percent and 2.2 percent respectively.

Output of high-quality steel manufacturing and petrochemical and fine chemicals, however, fell from the same period last year.

The industrial added value of strategic emerging industries grew 8.1 percent to 506.31 billion yuan, up 1.3 percentage points from the same period last year.

The bureau pointed to the sharp rise in new energy vehicles, at 29.6 percent year on year. The biological industry and new generation of information technology also jumped 15 percent and 14.2 percent respectively.

Shanghai’s foreign trade in the first half grew 3.8 percent from a year earlier, to 1.62 trillion yuan, according to data from the Shanghai Customs.

Imports were up 5.1 percent to 978.9 billion yuan while exports rose 1.8 percent from the first half last year to 637.18 billion yuan.

The total contract value of Shanghai’s foreign direct investment amounted to US$21.50 billion in the first six months, up 18.1 percent from a year earlier.

Fixed-asset investment rose 6 percent year on year to 317.03 billion yuan, with the industrial sector up 22.9 percent — the fastest rate in almost 10 years.

State-owned enterprises’ FAI rose 2.1 percent to 84.07 billion yuan, while non-SOEs’ investment surged 7.5 percent.

Infrastructure FAI jumped 9.5 percent and that in real estate development grew 3.6 percent to 181.69 billion yuan.

The city’s general public budgets increased 6.1 percent to 420.03 billion yuan, with spending on energy saving and environmental protection up 76.8 percent. Spending on urban and rural communities rose 26.7 percent, and that on health care and family planning was up 18.7 percent.

Prices in consumer products advanced 1.5 percent in the first half year on year, 0.3 percentage points lower than the first quarter.

Prices in services gained 1.6 percent from a year earlier amid a consumption upgrade and rapid growth in consumer demand for services.