Briefly

Pilot e-CNY deals amass major sums

China's digital yuan transactions hit nearly 87.57 billion yuan ($13.78 billion) at the end of 2021 as the country ramped up research and pilot use of the central bank's digital currency. A total of 261 million personal wallets for the digital yuan have been activated, and the number of pilot scenarios exceeded 8.08 million, said the People's Bank of China. The central bank will continue promoting research and development of the digital fiat currency, or the e-CNY, and further deepen the pilot use of e-CNY in retail services, government services and other scenarios. China's efforts in developing its central bank digital currency started in 2014 when it first conducted relevant studies, followed by the bank's moves to engage in R&D cooperation with commercial banks and internet companies in 2017.

Gansu sees GDP exceed 1 trillion yuan

Gansu province's 2021 GDP surpassed 1 trillion yuan ($157 billion) for the first time, up 6.9 percent year-on-year, local authorities said on Tuesday. In 2021, per capita annual disposable income of Gansu residents was 22,066 yuan, an increase of 8.5 percent over the previous year. Per capita disposable income for the province's rural residents grew 10.5 percent year-on-year, narrowing the gap between rural and urban incomes. Notably, during the period, Gansu's foreign trade surged 28.4 percent compared to the prior year to more than 49 billion yuan. Its exports reached about 9.7 billion yuan last year, up 13.2 percent from 2020, and imports hit 39.4 billion yuan, an increase of 32.7 percent.

Xinhua