Shanghai eyes steady growth in first quarter

Shanghai's economy grew steadily in the first quarter, with services contributing 72.4 percent of GDP, Shanghai Statistics Bureau said on Tuesday.

GDP hit 831 billion yuan (US$123 billion) in the first three months, up 5.7 percent from a year earlier, with services accounting for 72.4 percent — 601 billion yuan — an increase of 2.5 percentage points compared to the whole year 2018.

In terms of major sectors, value added output of the financial sector was 171 billion yuan in the first three months, up 13.3 percent over the same period last year. The social services sector jumped 10.6 percent to 223 billion yuan.

The transportation, warehousing and postal services posted value-added output of 37.8 billion yuan, up 4.3 percent, and the real estate sector rose 8.3 percent to 50.9 billion yuan.

Revenue of general public budgets increased 3.3 percent to 226 billion yuan, but individual income tax declined 31.4 percent due to a rise in the threshold of individual income tax and special deductions. Expenditure in the general public budget rose 9.3 percent to 217 billion yuan.

Turnover of the city's financial market totaled 456 trillion yuan, up 23.4 percent from the same period last year and an increase of 8.2 percentage points over the whole of last year. The Shanghai Futures Exchange and Stock Exchange advanced by 24.2 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively.

Turnover of the China Financial Futures Exchange, the inter-bank market, and Shanghai Gold Exchange increased by 130 percent, 27.6 percent and 15 percent, all significantly higher than last year.

Fixed-asset investment rose 5 percent year on year, with the industrial sector up 15.8 percent, 1.9 percentage points faster than a year earlier.

Infrastructure FAI climbed 3.7 percent with real estate development up 3 percent.

Foreign trade totaled 784 billion yuan, dipping 1.4 percent from a year earlier but a much slower decline than the 3.7-percent drop in the January-February period.

Exports were up 0.9 percent to 313 billion yuan while imports fell 2.9 percent to 471 billion yuan, mainly due to the Spring Festival factors.

The total actual value of  foreign direct investment amounted to US$4.5 billion, up 20.3 percent from a year earlier.

Gross industrial output value of enterprises above a designated size fell 4.8 percent from the same period last year to 783 billion yuan.

Output of biomedical producers gained 10.2 percent, the petrochemical and fine chemicals sector rose 5.2 percent, and in complete equipment manufacturing increased 2.3 percent.

The industrial added value of strategic emerging industries lost 3.2 percent, though new energy vehicles and biological industries surged 34.9 percent and 10.2 percent respectively.

Employment remained stable with 192,200 new jobs, an increase of 17,100 over the same period last year.  The number of registered urban unemployed was 188,300, down 20,300 from a year earlier.

Prices of consumer products advanced 1.6 percent year on year, flat from the pace of the whole year 2018.

Prices in consumer products gained 1.3 percent from a year earlier, while prices for services rose 2 percent.