Xia Yuanjie

szrbgracexia@126.com

DESPITE facing some downward pressures due to the complex international environment and COVID-19 resurgence in March, Shenzhen’s economy achieved a moderate but stable growth from January to April, according to data released by the city’s statistics bureau Tuesday night.

Data showed that in the first four months of the year, the total added value of industrial enterprises above designated size (with annual sales over 20 million yuan, or US$2.99 million), increased 4.2% year on year, 1.9 percentage points higher than the figure between January and March.

Among all industries, car manufacturing and major high-tech products showed a positive growth momentum, with the added value of car manufacturing up 96.1% year on year.

The output of new energy vehicles, charging poles and 5G smart phones rose by 187.5%, 162.5% and 72.9%, respectively.

The fixed asset investment from January to April went up by 8.9% year on year.

Industrial investment increased 47.7% year on year, with investments in manufacturing, information transmission, software and information technology services, and electricity, heating power, gas and water production and supply up 37.5%, 271% and 15%, respectively.

Retail sales of consumer goods, which were hit hard by the pandemic, went down 2.8% year on year to 277.6 billion yuan from January to April, while online retail sales continued to grow rapidly.

The city’s total import and export volume slipped by 1.3% year on year to 1.03 trillion yuan between January and April, with the decrease reduced by 1.5 percentage points compared to the first quarter.

Exports showed an encouraging performance by going up 1.8% year on year to 578 billion yuan. However, imports dropped by 5% to 456.2 billion yuan.

The average consumer price index rose by 2.2% during the first four months year on year, boosted by a surge in costs for food, clothing, housing, education, daily necessities and medical services, data showed.

Cen Wei, associate professor of the PHBS (Peking University HSBC Business School) Think Tank in Shenzhen, told Shenzhen Daily yesterday that the city’s industries rapidly recovered due to its industrial production shaking off the adverse effects of the pandemic in April, as well as strong growth in the new energy vehicle and consumer electronics sectors.

Cen hailed the city’s measures to boost industrial growth, saying that the policies with well-defined objectives will bolster the city’s weak manufacturing subfields that are complementary to the industrial chain.

He expected the city’s consumer goods retail sales would show remarkable recovery in May and achieve a positive growth, spurred by the government’s incentives to stimulate consumption rolled out in April.