Shanghai reports soaring GDP in H1

Despite the complexity of the global environment and the arduous tasks of opening-up and development, East China's cosmopolis, Shanghai, reported a soaring gross domestic product in the first half of the year. It grew 9.7 percent to 2.14 trillion yuan, according to official sources.

Shanghai's economy performed steadily in the first six months of this year as market demand gradually restored and production and supply continued to grow. Both employment and price remained stable, thanks to the local government's efforts to boost market confidence, expand demand, stabilize growth, and promote development, according to the local ThePaper.cn, citing statistics from the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau and the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

Specifically, the primary industry's added value rose 1.5 percent to 3.5 billion yuan in the January to June period of this year. The secondary industry surged 15.1 percent to 508.3 billion yuan during the same period, and the tertiary industry increased by 8.2 percent to 1.63 trillion yuan, according to the statistics bureaus.

In the first half, the city's industrial added value of designated size enterprises -- those with annual revenue of 20 million yuan or above, expanded by 14.2 percent year-on-year.

Total industrial output of strategic emerging industries amounted to 838.5 billion yuan in the January to June period, up 14.6 percent year-on-year. Among the emerging industries, new energy vehicles, new energy, and high-end equipment rose 69.8 percent, 57.8 percent, and 33.1 percent, year-on-year, respectively.

Fixed-asset investment across the city surged 37.2 percent year-on-year in the first six months. In terms of sectors, industrial investment increased 34.3 percent, real estate development grew by 37.5 percent, and urban infrastructure expanded by 21.5 percent.

In the first half of 2023, Shanghai saw its consumption rebound rapidly as the city's total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 23.5 percent to 937.8 billion yuan.

The financial market in Shanghai saw its trading volume grow 18.7 percent year-on-year to reach 1617.41 trillion yuan in the period between January and June.

In the first six months, the city's total imports and exports of goods totaled 2.09 trillion yuan, up 11.4 percent year-on-year. Among them, imports to Shanghai grew by 9.1 percent to 1.25 trillion yuan, along with a 15.2 percent increase in exports that amounted to 846.3 billion yuan.

The consumer price index has seen a mild growth of 0.4 percent from a year ago. In the meantime, Shanghai's per-capita disposable income grew rapidly by 9.9 percent year-on-year to 42,870 yuan during the same period. The unemployment rate in urban areas was at an average of 4.8 percent in the first six months, narrowing by 0.1 percentage point in comparison with the first quarter.