Shanghai economy makes steady gains in first half of 2021

Shanghai's economy continued a steady growth pace in the first half of 2021, with improvements in all economic indicators, the city's legislature was told on Wednesday.

The city's gross domestic product in the first six months of the year was 2.01 trillion yuan (US$310.5 billion), an increase of 12.7 percent on an annual basis. The average increase in 2020 and 2021 was 4.8 percent, same as for the whole country.

"The city is facing some difficulties in economic development, and currently the economic recovery is still unbalanced and unstable," said Hua Yuan, director of the Shanghai Commission of Development and Reform.

"Different industries, fields, and enterprises have different levels of economic recovery, especially the personnel-intensive service industry and some small, medium and micro enterprises."

Industrial production grew at a fast pace in the first six months, with strategic emerging industries bounding ahead.

Strategic emerging industries, led by new-energy vehicles, energy conservation and environmental protection, and the high-end equipment manufacturing industry, increased 19.6 percent in the first half of the year compared with last year, accounting for 39.5 percent of total industrial production.

Steady recovery continued in the services sector, with its value added increasing 11.3 percent over the previous period and increasing 5.2 percent on average in the past two years.

The city's consumption performance was better than the whole country's average. Total retail sales of social consumer goods came in at 904.8 billion yuan, up 30.3 percent year on year.

With the active implementation of policy measures to stimulate consumption and the launch of promotional activities such as those during the Double Five Shopping Festival, the city's consumer market helped to strengthen the economic recovery, according to a government report submitted to the city's legislature.

Foreign investors were proved optimistic about China and Shanghai with foreign direct investment in the city reaching US$12.45 billion, up 21.1 percent from the same period last year and an average increase of 13 percent over two years.

The headquarters economy continued steady development. In the first half of the year, Shanghai added 31 regional headquarters and 12 research and development centers of foreign companies, bringing the cumulative number of each to 802 and 493 respectively.

The employment situation was generally stable and household income growth picked up as well, with both ranking among the top in China.

In the first half of the year, the city's local general public budget revenue was 473.15 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.2 percent.

Hua added that the rise in commodity prices, international logistics costs and the rising RMB exchange rate also continue to affect the production and operation of enterprises.

Residents in Shanghai breathed better air in the first half of this year, the report said.

Better living

The average concentration of PM2.5 particles dropped to 31 micrograms per cubic meter, 11.4 percent lower than the same period last year, while the ratio of days with air quality index (AQI) marked as good or excellent increased by 6 percentage points.

Government said it will compile action plans for achieving carbon peaks for energy and electricity, industry, transportation, new infrastructure and architecture sectors in the second of this year and continue to enhance its management of air, water and soil pollution.

Residents of old neighborhoods in central districts have better living conditions. Refitting of 530,000 square meters of the oldest neighborhoods was completed by the end of June, while the goal for this year is 700,000 square meters.

In total the government invested 3.6 billion yuan in public service projects covering senior care, shared electric car charging facilities, green space and jogging tracks.

The city will continue to increase the vaccination rate of residents against COVID-19 in the latter half of this year and maintain its pandemic control efforts. By the end of June, about 78 percent of residents in Shanghai at least 18 years old had been vaccinated.