Chao News Client Reporter Huang Yunling Wang Jiangjun
The cargo ship docked at the wharf of Meishan Port Area of Zhoushan Port in Ningbo, Zhejiang Source: Xinhua News Agency
On the morning of April 24, the report card of Guangdong Province for the first quarter was released. So far, China's top six economic provinces in terms of total GDP have all announced their economic operations in the first quarter of this year.
In the process of stabilizing the economy, as a major economic province that is the "leader" of China's economic development, it has played a strong supporting role as a "pillar". Among them, the performance of the four provinces of Sulu, Zhejiang and Sichuan is eye-catching, and on the basis of a high base, it once again achieved a high growth rate and outperformed the national average.
The start is of great significance to affect market expectations, determine development trends, and relate to the overall situation of the year. Sheng Laiyun, deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that this year has started well, and the positive factors supporting the economy to continue to rebound have accumulated.
The GDP of the six major provinces accounts for 44.96% of the national total
Jiangsu and Zhejiang have stepped onto a new level hand in hand
On April 16, the National Bureau of Statistics announced the operation of the national economy in the first quarter of 2024. According to preliminary calculations, the GDP in the first quarter was 296299 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.3% at constant prices. The growth rate exceeded expectations.
According to the statistics of Chao News reporters, the total GDP of the six major provinces in the first quarter reached 133228 billion yuan, accounting for 44.96% of the country, an increase of 0.31 percentage points over last year. Guangdong Province continued to take the lead, with a GDP of 3,151.066 billion yuan in the first quarter; Jiangsu Province ranked second, with a GDP of 3,102.04 billion yuan in the first quarter; Shandong Province ranked third, with a GDP of 2,165.2 billion yuan in the first quarter; Zhejiang Province followed closely behind with a GDP of 2,013.7 billion yuan in the first quarter; Henan and Sichuan ranked fifth and sixth with a GDP of 1,476.534 billion yuan and 1,414.26 billion yuan respectively.
In terms of growth rate, the four coastal provinces of Guangdong, Suzhou, Lu and Zhejiang, except for Guangdong, which grew by 4.4 percent, all performed very eye-catching, reaching 6.2 percent, 6.0 percent and 6.1 percent respectively.
The throughput of Shenzhen port increased by more than 40% in February. Source: Xinhua News Agency
Guangdong's growth in the first quarter of this year is inseparable from the strong performance of foreign trade. In the first quarter, the scale of Guangdong's foreign trade import and export exceeded 2 trillion yuan for the first time compared with the same period in history, accounting for 20.1% of the country's total import and export value, and the growth rate was 7 percentage points higher than that of the whole country.
Zhang Ke, deputy director of the Guangdong Branch of the General Administration of Customs, said that from the perspective of the situation, the intermediate goods accounting for more than half of Guangdong's overall foreign trade grew rapidly, with imports and exports of 1.12 trillion yuan in the first quarter, an increase of 16.7%, driving the overall import and export growth of Guangdong by 8.8 percentage points.
Jiangsu successfully exceeded 3 trillion yuan in the first quarter of this year, becoming the second province with a GDP of more than 3 trillion yuan in the first quarter after Guangdong. In the current quarter, Jiangsu's industry achieved rapid growth. The added value of industry increased by 7.7% year-on-year, driving economic growth by 3 percentage points, of which the added value of manufacturing increased by 7.3% year-on-year, accounting for 35.9% of GDP.
At the same time, Jiangsu's foreign trade has also rebounded. According to Nanjing Customs, in the first quarter, Jiangsu's foreign trade achieved a total import and export value of 1.3 trillion yuan, a record high, of which the import and export of private enterprises was 598.82 billion yuan, an increase of 20.7%, driving the province's import and export growth rate of 8.6 percentage points, surpassing foreign-invested enterprises to become the main force of growth.
Shandong's exports also achieved higher-than-expected growth. In the first quarter, the total import and export value of goods in the province was 764.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%. Among them, exports were 459.29 billion yuan, up by 12.3 percent, and imports were 305.34 billion yuan, up by 1.4 percent. It is worth mentioning that on the basis of a high base in the previous year, exports continued to maintain rapid growth, 3.9 percentage points higher than the national average, and the export of mechanical and electrical products increased by 26.7%, and the structure of foreign trade products continued to be optimized, while strongly supporting the steady and good development of the industrial economy.
Zhejiang jumped to a new level in the first quarter of this year and successfully entered the "2 trillion" camp. In the first quarter, Zhejiang's industrial performance was outstanding, with the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size increasing by 8.2 percent year-on-year, 2.2 percentage points faster than that of last year; the investment in fixed assets increasing by 6.9 percent year-on-year, 0.8 percentage points faster than that of last year; consumption also continued to recover, and in the first quarter, the total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 5.9 percent year-on-year, and the growth rate rose by 0.5 percentage points over the same period last year. Guo Huimin, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Statistics, said that Zhejiang's economic operation in the first quarter had a good start and steady progress, laying a good foundation for completing the annual goals and tasks.
Sichuan maintained its strong momentum
Henan's fifth position was challenged
Among the six major economic provinces, Henan and Sichuan, which have long ranked fifth and sixth in terms of total economic volume, are the only two inland provinces and the provinces with the highest economic aggregate in the central and western regions.
Last year, there was a historic swap of positions between the two provinces, with Henan temporarily retiring from the throne of the "fifth province" for 18 consecutive years and retreating to sixth place; Sichuan was promoted from the "sixth old" to the fifth place, becoming the largest economic province in the central and western regions.
In the first quarter of this year, Henan temporarily regained the fifth position with an advantage of more than 60 billion yuan, but the growth rate was not as fast as Sichuan. Throughout the year, it is not easy to "pull Sichuan down".
On April 19, the Henan Provincial Bureau of Statistics announced the province's economic operation in the first quarter of 2024: according to the unified accounting results of regional GDP, the province's gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter was 1,476.534 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.7% at constant prices.
By industry, the added value of the primary industry was 62.491 billion yuan, up by 2.6 percent, the added value of the secondary industry was 564.605 billion yuan, up by 6.7 percent, and the added value of the tertiary industry was 849.438 billion yuan, up by 3.6 percent.
This data makes Henan farther and farther away from the pacesetter, but the chasing soldiers are closer, and the development situation is facing more severe challenges.
Sichuan, on the other hand, released its main economic data for the first quarter one day earlier than Henan. In the first quarter of 2024, Sichuan's GDP was 1,414.26 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.1% at comparable prices.
Among them, the added value of the primary industry was 85.70 billion yuan, up by 2.7 percent, the added value of the secondary industry was 476.63 billion yuan, up by 6.4 percent, and the added value of the tertiary industry was 851.93 billion yuan, up by 6.4 percent.
In comparison, the primary industry of the two provinces accounts for a relatively small proportion, and the gap between the total volume and the growth rate is not large. In terms of the main secondary and tertiary industries, Henan is ahead of Sichuan in terms of total volume and growth rate, and the advantage of nearly 88 billion yuan has laid the advantage of surpassing Sichuan in the first quarter. The biggest variable is in the tertiary industry, both of which total about 850 billion yuan, but Henan only achieved a growth rate of 3.6 percent, while Sichuan growth reached 6.4 percent.
On March 20, the site of the 110th National Sugar and Liquor Commodity Fair in Western China International Expo City, Chengdu. Source: Xinhua News Agency
As the land of abundance, Sichuan is not only rich in natural resources, but also famous for its living city, leisure and livable characteristics, and has always been the consumption center of the west and the center of life in the southwest, which is vividly reflected in the strong tertiary industry growth data of Sichuan.
Among them, the added value of leasing and business services increased by 18.9 percent, accommodation and catering services increased by 12.7 percent, transportation, warehousing and postal services increased by 10.1 percent, wholesale and retail trade increased by 8.4 percent, and information transmission, software and information technology services increased by 6.0 percent.
Zhejiang has the highest per capita disposable income
There is a large income gap between urban and rural areas in Guangdong
In addition to the total GDP and growth rate, the per capita disposable income of residents in the six major economic provinces is also the main highland except for the municipalities directly under the central government.
In the first quarter, the per capita disposable income of residents nationwide was 11,539 yuan, a nominal increase of 6.2 percent over the same period of the previous year, and a real increase of 6.2 percent after deducting price factors. In terms of urban and rural areas, the per capita disposable income of urban residents was 15,150 yuan, up by 5.3 percent, or 5.3 percent in real terms, and the per capita disposable income of rural residents was 6,596 yuan, up by 7.6 percent, or 7.7 percent in real terms.
Chao news reporters combed and found that among the six provinces, the per capita disposable income of Guangdong, Sulu and Zhejiang along the coast exceeded the national average, and Sichuan in the central and western regions had a gap of 2,069 yuan from the national average, although Henan did not disclose specific data, referring to the whole year of 2023, the per capita disposable income is more than 2,500 yuan behind Sichuan, and it is expected that the first quarter may still be below the national average.
On April 21, Sizhoutang Village, Shengsi County, Zhoushan City. Source: Xinhua News Agency
In the first quarter, the per capita disposable income of all residents in Zhejiang Province was the highest among the six provinces, at 21,352 yuan, followed by Jiangsu Province at 18,086 yuan, Guangdong ranked third with 14,714 yuan, Shandong had a per capita disposable income of 11,591 yuan, a nominal increase of 5.9 percent year-on-year, and Sichuan Province was below 10,000 yuan, at 9,470 yuan.
In terms of the ratio of per capita income of urban and rural residents, an important indicator of the income gap between urban and rural areas, only two provinces in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have a value below 2. Among them, the per capita disposable income of urban residents in Jiangsu Province in the first quarter was 20,872 yuan, and the per capita disposable income of rural residents was 12,325 yuan, with a ratio of 1.69. The ratio of Zhejiang Province was 1.75, a year-on-year decrease of 0.04, and the disposable income of urban residents was 24,796 yuan, and the disposable income of rural residents was 14,203 yuan.
Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces not only have high per capita disposable income, but also have a small gap between urban and rural areas, which is a model of common prosperity and average wealth in China.
It is worth noting that Guangdong, the leader in GDP, has a high per capita income ratio of 2.34 between urban and rural residents, which also shows that the income gap between urban and rural areas in Guangdong is large. According to the data, the per capita disposable income of urban residents in Guangdong Province in the first quarter was 17,703 yuan, and the per capita disposable income of rural residents was only 7,559 yuan.
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