Regions with balanced economies lead in upgrading

China's regions which boast balanced economic structures took the lead in the growth stakes throughout last year, while more inner regions that used to lag behind are catching up through industrial upgrades, the latest regional economic data has showed.

The data revealed that of 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions that released their economic data in 2016, a total of 21 achieved GDP growth above 7 percent.

Leading them were the Tibet autonomous region, Chongqing and Guizhou province which remained the top three with the highest year-on-year growth rates of 11.5 percent, 10.7 percent and 10.5 percent respectively.