City's economy robust despite COVID-19 outbreak

Shanghai's economy grew steadily at the beginning of the year but retreated in March due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The city's gross domestic product exceeded 1 trillion yuan (US$153.8 billion) in the first three months, up 3.1 percent from the same period last year (calculated at comparable prices), according to the city's statistics bureau.

The growth pace was 1.6 percentage points slower than a year earlier, as a result of the sudden COVID-19 outbreak in March.

Among them, value-added output of the secondary industry grew 2.4 percent, which was 0.5 percentage points slower. The added value of the tertiary industry rose 3.3 percent, with the growth pace falling back 2.2 percentage points.

In the first three months, value-added industrial production in the city rose 3.9 percent from a year earlier. The figure in January-February advanced 11.9 percent while that in March tumbled by 10.9 percent year on year.

Of the 35 major industrial sectors, production in 12 sectors achieved expansion.

Among them, the computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing sector led the growth with output value soaring by 27.5 percent, followed by the 18.4-percent growth in output of the automobile industry.

Strategic emerging industries still bounded ahead.

In the first quarter, the total output of the city's strategic emerging industrial sectors topped 392 billion yuan, up 13.7 percent over the same period last year and was 8.9 percentage points faster than the overall growth in industrial output.

Production of new-energy vehicles and new-generation information technology shot up by 98.2 percent and 28.9 percent.

The bureau noted that growth in the digital economy continued to gain momentum.

Between January and February, the city's information transmission, software and information technology services posted an increase in business income of 21.3 percent year on year. In the first quarter, the added value of this sector grew by 10.3 percent from a year earlier, pulling the city's overall economic growth up by 0.9 percentage points.

Online retail sales also continued to rise, running to 99.88 billion yuan, up 18.4 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 22.8 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods.

Foreign investment went well in general, with the city's total imports and exports of goods totaling 1.01 trillion yuan in January-March, up 14.6 percent year on year. Of this total, exports soared 23.8 percent to 413.5 billion yuan, while imports grew 8.9 percent to 594.37 billion yuan.

Among them, general trade expanded by 14 percent year on year, accounting for 56.8 percent of the total imports and exports.

Foreign direct investment in the city actually attained US$6.63 billion, jumping 17.8 percent from the same period last year, which was 6.3 percentage points faster than a year earlier.

Household income maintained stable growth. The number of newly added jobs in the three-month period, however, shrank by 26,200 from a year earlier to 192,600.