New engines power Shanghai's better-than-expected growth

Driven by the substantial growth of new economic engines and new quality productive forces, Shanghai's GDP growth came at 5.5 percent in the first three quarters of the year, 0.3 percentage points higher than the national average and exceeding market expectations, the municipal statistics bureau said on Wednesday.

The three pioneering industries of integrated circuit, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence saw their combined industrial output jump 8.5 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters. AI companies reported a robust growth of 12.8 percent, while IC manufacturing reached 11.3 percent.

The total manufacturing output churned out by strategic and emerging industries surged by 7.3 percent year-on-year. Specifically, industrial output from the new energy sector spiked 19.6 percent while that for high-end equipment by 10.3 percent. These new industries now account for 44.1 percent of the city's total industrial output.

The added value of information transmission, software and information technology service providers jumped 15.5 percent year-on-year to approach 528 billion yuan ($74 billion). 

The strong performance of the pioneering and emerging industries has also resulted in the 11.3 percent-year-on-year growth in Shanghai's exports in the first three quarters, 4.2 percentage points higher than the national average. The city's import and export value surged 5.4 percent in the first nine months, among which the third quarter data reached a record high of 405.9 billion yuan.

The financial sector, which is Shanghai's strength for years, saw high trading activity. While the financial added value gained 9.8 percent year-on-year to top 696.5 billion yuan, combined trading value at the major trading venues in Shanghai jumped 12.7 percent from a year earlier. In specific, turnover of listed securities at the Shanghai Stock Exchange spiked 38.4 percent while that registered at the Shanghai Gold Exchange soared by 40.2 percent.

Industrial investment was up by 20.3 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters, 14.3 percentage points higher than the city's fixed asset investment. Infrastructure investment also gained 11.7 percent.

The unemployment rate in urban and rural areas of Shanghai averaged at 4.2 percent. Consumer Price Index remained flat in Shanghai in the past three quarters, contracting by 0.1 percentage point if compared to the half-year figure. Meanwhile, disposal income per capita grew 4.3 percent year-on-year to 69,220 yuan throughout the first three quarters. The rural area saw the disposal income per capita grown by a faster 5.4 percent. 

Partly boosted by the trade-in program, the total social retails of consumer goods exceed 1.23 trillion yuan by the end of the third quarter, up 4.3 percent year-on-year. This growth rate was 2.6 percentage points higher than the half-year number.