Shanghai’s GDP in the first half of 2022 fell 5.7% year-on-year, with previous growth offset by another Covid lockdown for two months.

Between January and June, GDP stood at 1.935 trillion Yuan (US$287.27 billion) in Shanghai, according to the local statistics bureau.

The city was significantly impacted by the Covid resurgence in Q2: "In particular, during the citywide lockdown in April and May, various economic activities, including investment, consumption, and imports and exports, were all greatly restricted," said Shen Kaiyan, head of the Institute of Economics at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

"The negative economic growth in the first half of the year was par for the course."

However, there was a degree of recovery in June, as the lockdown restrictions were relaxed.

The statistics bureau stated that the economy remained resilient, with the recovery yielding solid results in June.

There was a notable rally last month in industrial production and foreign trade of goods, with 15.8% and 9.6% growth recorded respectively over last year, Shine News reports.

In addition, the figures showed new growth drivers for the economy which rallied from the impact of the pandemic shock.

In the first half of 2022, the integrated circuits, artificial intelligence and bio-medicine industries – the leading three manufacturing industries – contributed an industrial production of 180.551 billion Yuan, a 4.3% rise from last year, to surpass overall industrial growth.

Furthermore, indicators related to the digital economy bucked the recession trend. In H1, value-added output of the information transmission, software and information technology services industry rose by an annual 5.3%, driving Shanghai’s economic growth by 0.4 percentage points.

The industry also reported an 8% year-on-year rise in revenue between January and may, exceeding Shanghai’s overall growth in service revenue by 9.3 percentage points.