National Bureau of Statistics of PRC, on March 17, made an announcement on the economic development achieved during the first two months of the year. According to the data released, the economy developed steadily along an innovative and promising pathway, with the rather faster growth of the industrial service sector, the ongoing improvement in the consumption and investment capacities, the overall employment stability and the burgeoning of new quality productive force.
The industrial manufacturing sector grew faster, witnessing the accelerated growth of equipment manufacturing industry and hi-tech manufacturing industry. During this January and February, the added value of the nation’s above-designated-size industrial enterprises (each of whom produces a yearly main business income of 20 million yuan or more) increased year on year by 5.9%, at a growth rate increased by 0.1% yearly. In detail, the added value of equipment manufacturing industry grew year on year by 10.6%, at a rate up 2.9% annually, while the added value of hi-tech manufacturing industry rose by 9.1%, at an annually-0.2%-increased rate.
The service sector shared promising momentum, with modern service industry surging faster. During the first two months of this year, the nation’s index of service production surged year on year by 5.6%, up 0.4% as compared with the growth rate of last year.
Market sales accelerated to rise, while trade-in merchandise and the related had more satisfactory sales. During January and February of this year, total retail sales of consumer goods went up 40% as compared with last year, to 8373.1 billion yuan, achieving an increase of 0.5% in the growth rate. The trade-in policies had an ongoing influence, resulting in a 26.2% increase in the retail sales of communication device, 21.8% increase in the retail sales of cultural and office supplies, 11.7% increase in the retail sales of home furnishings and 10.9% increase in the retail sales of audio and visual products. During the same period, the nation’s online retail sales went up 7.3% as compared with last year, to 2276.3 billion yuan.
