Sichuan's GDP exceeded the 5 trillion mark for the first time

Source: West China Metropolis Daily

The province's GDP exceeded the 5 trillion mark for the first time

In 2021, the province's gross domestic product (GDP) was 5,385.079 billion yuan, an increase of 8.2% over the previous year.

On January 19, the Information Office of the Sichuan Provincial Government held a press conference to release the "report card" of Sichuan's economic operation in 2021. The data shows that in 2021, the province's economy will continue to recover steadily, strengthen and improve quality in stability, and the main economic indicators will better complete the expected targets at the beginning of the year.

In 2021, the province will achieve a regional gross domestic product (GDP) of 5,385.079 billion yuan, which is also the first time that Sichuan's GDP has exceeded the 5 trillion yuan mark. What characteristics of Sichuan's economic development are reflected behind this figure?

"5 trillion yuan means that Sichuan's economic strength has reached a new level." Zeng Junlin, spokesman for the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Statistics, said that according to the National Bureau of Statistics, the mainland's GDP will exceed 114 trillion yuan in 2021, and Sichuan's GDP will account for 4.7% of the country, becoming the sixth province in the country and the first province in the western region with a GDP of more than 5 trillion yuan. Sichuan's status as a major economic province in the country and the leading position in the western region is even more prominent.

What is the concept of 5,385.079 billion yuan? Zeng Junlin said that compared with Sichuan's GDP in 2020, the annual increase is more than 500 billion yuan. In 2001, Sichuan's GDP was less than 430 billion yuan, and now the annual increase is equivalent to the total GDP of Sichuan 20 years ago. If calculated on a daily basis, Sichuan will create an average of 14.8 billion yuan of GDP per day in 2021, which is equivalent to the total economic volume of the year in the early stage of reform and opening up. Data show that in 1978, Sichuan's annual GDP was less than 18.5 billion yuan.

"5 trillion yuan means that there is a new breakthrough in the robustness of Sichuan's economic development." Looking back at the history of Sichuan's total economic volume, from the first breakthrough of the trillion yuan mark in 2007, to the breakthrough of 2 trillion yuan in 2011, and the breakthrough of 3 trillion yuan in 2015, an average of one step every four years. After that, the pace of Sichuan's total economic volume across the steps was faster, the province's GDP exceeded 4 trillion yuan in 2018, and in 2020, after experiencing a variety of complex and difficult situations such as the epidemic, the province's total economic volume in 2021 stepped up to 5 trillion steps, which fully reflects the further enhancement of Sichuan's economic stability and more calm and stable economic development.

Looking back at Sichuan's economic operation performance in 2021, Zeng Junlin gave two keywords: "catch-up" and "breakthrough".

This year, Sichuan's economic development growth rate to catch up showed acceleration, from the first quarter of 2021 economic growth rate is 2.5 percentage points lower than the country, to the first half of the year is only 0.6 percentage points lower than the country, the third quarter will further narrow the gap to 0.5 percentage points, the final economic growth rate of 8.2% throughout the year, surpassing the national 0.1 percentage points.

"In addition to the GDP growth rate reflecting Sichuan's tenacious catch-up situation, other major economic indicators have also achieved counterattack." Zeng Junlin said that at the beginning of the year, the growth rate of industrial added value above designated size in Sichuan was 18.7 percentage points lower than that of the whole country, and the gap was relatively large, and after catching up all the way, the added value of industries above designated size in the whole year increased by 9.8% over the previous year, and the growth rate was 0.2 percentage points higher than that of the whole country; the growth rate of the operating income of service enterprises above designated size was 6.1 percentage points lower than that of the whole country at the beginning of the year to 21.3% for the whole year, surpassing the national growth rate by 0.6 percentage points.

In addition, fixed asset investment for 5 consecutive months and total retail sales of consumer goods were higher than the whole country for 7 consecutive months. In 2021, Sichuan will achieve a 10.1% increase in fixed asset investment in the whole society over the previous year, an average growth of 10.0% in two years; and a total retail sales of social consumer goods in the whole year of 2,413.32 billion yuan, an increase of 15.9% over the previous year and an average growth of 6.4% in two years.

"Judging from the average growth rate of Sichuan's GDP in two years, the trend of economic recovery has not changed, and the strong resilience has not changed." Zeng Junlin said.