Jiangsu Province has demonstrated economic resilience during the first eight months of this year, according to the figures released by the province's Bureau of Statistics on September 25.
Notably, the completed fixed asset investment increased by 5.7% year-on-year in the eight months, total retail sales of consumer goods rose by 7.9% year-on-year to over 3 trillion yuan, and the added value of industrial enterprises above the designated size registered a year-on-year growth of 7.2%.
Overall, the coastal province has continued its economic recovery since the beginning of this year, and the development also featured stable production, expanding domestic demand, and quality improvement.
Strong consumer economy in summer holiday
(CFP Photo)
The consumer market this year recorded strong recovery in the cultural and tourism sectors. The province received 658 million domestic and foreign tourists, generating 870 billion yuan in tourism revenue, representing 11.3% and 3.2% increase compared with the same period in 2019, respectively.
Amid the accelerated growth of rural residents' income and improvement of shopping environment in the countryside, retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas increased by 9.8% year-on-year, 2.2 percentage points higher than in cities.
Sales of new energy vehicles in the province accounted for 24.4% of all automobile sales, marking an 9.2 percentage points increase from the same period last year.
The market also featured rapid growth of smart and eco-friendly products as low-carbon development has been increasingly embraced in the society. In August, the sales of smart home appliances across the province rose by 8.8% from the previous month.
Equipment manufacturing underpins steady industrial growth
The value added in manufacturing and automobile manufacturing enterprises above the designated size increased by 7.4% and 17.8% year-on-year, respectively.
Jiang Zhaoyi, vice president of the Financial Research Institute of Jiangsu Province, said the province boasts distinctive advantages in tech-intensive green products as the output of new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, solar batteries and charging piles went up by 83.5%, 20.1%, 47.1% and 450% year-on-year, respectively.
In August, most industries in Jiangsu achieved positive growth, including a growth rate of 4.4% in terms of the value added in the equipment manufacturing industry.
The economic growth also led to progress in corporate profitability. “As of the end of July, finished goods inventory fell by 0.4% year-on-year, a decrease for six consecutive months since the beginning of the year, and this indicated an eased inventory pressure and improved production and marketing efficiency in Jiangsu,” said Jiang.
Effective investment fuels economic growth
The province's manufacturing investment during the eight months increased by 10.9% year-on-year, 2 percentage points higher than last year’s figure.
Investment in infrastructure grew by 4.4% year-on-year. Among them, investment in projects above 500 million yuan and 1 billion yuan increased by 7.9% and 9.7%, respectively.
Seven out of 16 infrastructure sectors saw positive growth in the period. Notably, investment in railway transport, road transport, waterway transport, and water conservancy surged by 99.2%, 10.5%, 17.5%, and 20.3%, respectively.
In addition, the completed investment into projects worth more than 1 billion yuan during the eight months increased by 15.8% year-on-year, underscoring the significance of large projects in driving investment growth.
