The 21 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong province recently reported their main economic indicators for the first quarter of this year and surprisingly, neither Guangzhou or Shenzhen were the province's fastest growing cities.
According to the report, the year-over-year GDP growth rate of 10 cities including Guangzhou and Dongguan exceeded the national average growth rate and, of course, manufacturing played an important role in supporting their economies. Cities with higher year-over-year GDP growth rates also ranked among the forefront of the industrial added value growth rate. The quantity and quality of the economic development of many cities in eastern, western and northern Guangdong have improved, showing a good momentum.
Which city performed best?In terms of year-over-year growth, Zhongshan ranked first with a growth rate of 25.0%, while Huizhou and Jiangmen ranked second and third with 23.2% and 21.4% respectively. Cities such as Dongguan and Qingyuan also exceeded the national and provincial average growth rates.In addition to the year-over-year growth rate, this year's economic data of various regions also increased over the two-year average growth rate of the major economic indicators announced. The staff of the Provincial Statistics Bureau said that this calculation method can better reflect the actual economic growth over the past two years.In the first quarter of last year, Shanwei led the province with a year-over-year growth rate of 1.9%. Since then, it has continued to lead the province's 21 prefecture-level cities throughout the year. In the first quarter of this year, Shanwei once again ranked first in the province with a two-year average growth rate of 8.4%, and its performance has been stable and fast.The combined GDP of Guangzhou and Shenzhen last year exceeded 5 trillion yuan. In the first quarter, Guangzhou's economic growth rate was 19.5% year-over-year, and the two-year average growth rate was 5.6%, ranking among the top domestic central cities. In contrast, Shenzhen has been more affected by the epidemic and Sino-US trade frictions. In the first quarter of last year, its GDP declined by 6.6% year-over-year, but it reversed to a positive growth of 17.1% in the first quarter of this year.Wan Lu, deputy director of the Institute of Economics of the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, said that Guangzhou and Shenzhen accounted for half of the province’s total economy and are the main engines of the province’s economy. The economic performance of the two cities has a considerable impact on the province’s economic performance.From the perspective of regional coordinated development, there are also bright spots: Qingyuan, Heyuan and Shantou's GDP growth reached 20.3%, 20.3%, and 19.9% respectively. Behind the force of economic growth is investment to make up for shortcomings. For example, Heyuan's investment in the first quarter increased by 49.4% year-on-year; Qingyuan leveraged on the location advantage of Guangzhou to increase fixed asset investment in the first quarter by 37.6% year-on-year, and an average growth rate of 9.3% in two years.Where is the high-quality growth momentum?This year, the year-over-year GDP growth rate of the whole province of Guangdong is more than 6%. Guangdong's economy began to recover in the second quarter of last year, so the calculation base of economic growth in the next nine months of this year should be much higher than that in the first quarter.In the first quarter, there were 5 cities in the province with a year-over-year growth rate of over 40% in the industrial added value. Among them, Qingyuan ranked first in the province with a growth rate of 44.1%, followed by Yangjiang, Zhongshan, Heyuan, and Jiangmen. Manufacturing was an important driving force for the economic development of these cities.Two trillion-dollar economic cities, Dongguan and Foshan, also performed well. In the first quarter of this year, the value-added of industries in Dongguan was 101.256 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.9%; the value-added of industries in Foshan was 113.259 billion yuan, an increase of 20%, an average increase of 4.9% in two years.Affected by the global economic situation, the added value of Shenzhen's computer, communications and other electronic equipment manufacturing industries increased by 15.6% year-on-year in the first quarter, which was 1.5 percentage points lower than the year-over-year growth rate of GDP.In response to this, Shenzhen's plan is to focus on higher-level innovation and promote the construction of a comprehensive national science center in the Greater Bay Area in 2021. The overall development plan for Shenzhen Guangming Science City have been reviewed and approved.In March, the total retail sales of consumer goods in Shenzhen increased by 44.2% year-over-year, and the growth rate was 6.6% faster compared to January and February.A similar scene also appeared in other cities. In the first quarter, the total retail sales of consumer goods in Zhuhai, Dongguan, and Zhaoqing increased by 38.1%, 34.6%, and 32.8% respectively year-over-year.Source: 不是深圳也不是广州，广东经济增速最快的城市竟是它→
RECOMMENDED READING:
Scan the qr code below to follow ShekouDaily
for the latest news and information.