SHENZHEN’S economy bottomed out in the second quarter and is expected to grow faster in the remainder of the year and will achieve the city’s annual growth goal of 10 percent, Southern Metropolis Daily reported Thursday, quoting the head of the city’s top economic planner.

The city’s economy expanded 8 percent in the first half of the year to reach 547.41 billion yuan (US$86 billion), rebounding from the 5.8 percent growth rate for the first quarter, Xu Anliang, director of Shenzhen’s development and reform commission, said in a report to the municipal people’s congress.

The growth rate was 0.2 percentage points higher than the national level and 0.6 percent higher than the provincial level, but 2 percentage points lower than what the city leaders had expected, Xu said

Figures from the city’s statistics bureau showed industrial output achieved 232.33 billion yuan in the first six months, up 4.4 percent from a year earlier. The growth rate was 7.6 percent lower than the city’s goal set at the end of last year.

Infrastructure investment increased by 11.1 percent to 91.91 billion yuan, while retail sales grew 15.5 percent to 187.83 yuan. Exports rose 6.3 percent to US$124.42 billion and the growth rate was 6.7 percent lower than expected.

Xu said the steady growth meant Shenzhen’s economy has recovered from the slowdown that swept across the country.

“The major economic indices have been expanding month by month, although the expansion was not as fast as expected,” Xu said.

Industrial output saw a contraction of 3 percent in the first two months of the year, while exports slipped by 6 percent. The growth rate for retail sales during that period was 11.5 percent, data showed.

The city’s four pillar industries of finance, logistics, culture and high technology grew by 9.2 to 19.3 percent from a year ago and contributed 59.6 percent to the gross domestic product in the first six months, while the fastest development was achieved by the city’s emerging industries of strategic importance.

The six emerging industries of strategic importance, including bio-tech, Internet, new energy and new material, expanded more than 20 percent to 617.7 billion yuan.

Shenzhen’s infrastructure investment growth rate exceeded that for Guangdong for the first time in 10 years in the first half of the year as the city ceased to primarily depend on infrastructural investment for its economic growth, but rather the growth of a large number of private companies.

A big worry Xu pointed out for the exports-oriented city was that Shenzhen’s exports growth rate has been lower than the national and provincial level for six straight months and exports to the United States and the European Union as well as emerging markets like Latin America and Africa all dropped.

Xu also warned that manufacturers’ profits have slipped markedly as a result of the slowdown in exports. In the first five months of the year, profits raked in by manufacturers tumbled by 39.3 percent and their total losses reached 13.61 billion yuan.

To ensure faster economic growth, Shenzhen will introduce stimulus packages including 210 billion yuan in loans to small and medium-sized enterprises and supporting no fewer than 30 firms to list on the stock market, Xu said. (Liu Minxia)