Steady gains for Shanghai’s economy in H1 2021

The Shanghai economy continued a steady pace of growth in the first six months of the year, with all economic indicators showing improvement.

GDP for the first half of 2021 stood at 2.01 trillion yuan ($310.5 billion), a 12.7% rise on an annual basis. The average rise in 2020 and 2021 was 4.8%.

"The city is facing some difficulties in economic development, and currently the economic recovery is still unbalanced and unstable," according to 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 increased rapidly in H1, particularly within strategic emerging industries, led by new-energy vehicles, energy conservation and environmental protection, and the high-end equipment manufacturing industry. Production rose 19.6% between January and June compared to 2020, making up 39.5% of total industrial production.

Moreover, the services sector continued its gradual recovery, rising 11.3% over the six months, and increasing by an average 5.2% over the past two years.
Shanghai’s consumption performance surpassed the entire country’s average. Total retail sales of social consumer goods stood at 904.8 billion yuan, a 30.3% rise year-on-year.

In addition, employment was steady and there was also a pickup in household income growth, with both ranking among the top in the country.

Shanghai’s local general public budget revenue for the first six months of 2021 was 473.15 billion yuan, a year-on-year rise of 20.2%.

The director of the Shanghai Commission of Development and Reform went on to add that the increase in commodity prices, international logistics costs and the rising RMB exchange rate continue to impact businesses’ production and operation.