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Shanghai's GDP up 6.8 percent in Q1

By Wang Yanlin | 16:37 UTC+8 April 19, 2017 | Online Edition

SHANGHAI'S economy was off to a better-than-expected start with gross domestic product expanding 6.8 percent from a year earlier to 692.28 billion yuan (US$100.39 billion) in the first quarter, Shanghai Statistics Bureau said today.

The pace was 0.1 percentage point faster than the same period of last year but 0.1 percentage point slower than the national average.

"The city's economy grew steadily in the first three months of this year, mainly fuelled by notable recovery in industrial output, robust domestic demand as well as improved export," said Ruan Qin, deputy director of Shanghai Development and Reform Commission.

Value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, rose 6 percent to 179.99 billion yuan between January and March, reversing a 4.1 percent decrease in the same period last year. Industrial production, meanwhile, climbed to 782.15 billion yuan during the three-month period, a year-on-year rise of 7.1 percent which is the highest Q1 gain since 2012, the bureau's data showed.

The city's services output rose 7.5 percent to 489.64 billion yuan in the first quarter, contributing to 70.7 percent of the local GDP. Financing and shipping industries both registered stable growth while emerging sectors including information services and cultural and creative continued to grow at a faster pace.

Foreign trade in the first quarter jumped 20.1 percent from a year earlier to 751.13 billion yuan amid improving external and domestic demand, reversing a 4.1 percent drop in the same period last year. In particular, export increased 13.2 percent and import surged 25.3 percent, the bureau said.

Fixed-asset investment rose 10.5 percent in the first three months, 2.1 percentage points faster than same period a year ago. Investment in infrastructure jumped at a faster pace of 25.7 percent while that in real estate development rose 8.6 percent, 3.7 percentage points slower than same period a year earlier mainly due to government's tightening measures to rein in speculation.

The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-funded affordable housing, dived 67 percent in the first quarter of this year while in the existing home market, the plunge was 72 percent, the bureau said.

Shanghai's retail sales rose 7.8 percent to 275.04 billion yuan in January to March, accelerating from a 7.1 percent growth in same period last year.

The city's consumer inflation rose at a slower pace. The Consumer Price Index, a main gauge of inflation, climbed 2.2 percent year on year in the three-month period, 0.8 percentage point slower from a year ago.

"Housing rents, health and medical services including medicine as well as food, tobacco and alcohol were the three major contributors to first quarter's CPI growth," said Tang Huihao, chief economist at the bureau. "And the gap between the city's CPI and the national average also narrowed to 0.8 percentage point in the first quarter from 1.2 percentage points in 2016."

Cost of health and medical services climbed 8.7 percent, housing rents rose 3.9 percent and prices of food, tobacco and alcohol gained 0.7 percent, jointly pushing up this quarter's CPI by 1.9 percentage points, according to the bureau.

Between January and March, the city created 167,000 new jobs and per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents increased 8.4 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively.

By the end of March, 590 multinational companies had set up their regional headquarters in Shanghai and the number of overseas-funded R&D centers totaled 412 in the city.

Economy


 

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