Guangdong's economy sees smooth start

In the first two months, Guangdong's economy has maintained good recovery momentum, seeing a smooth start in 2024.

"During this period, Guangdong's most key indicators, including various industries, investment, consumption, imports and exports, have seen sound growth, which are higher than the average level of the nation's total. This has shown the strong resilience and potential of the province's economy," said Yang Xinhong, director of the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics.

The province's total value added of the industrial enterprises above the designated size reached 0.55 trillion RMB, up 10.6% year on year during the January-February period, according to the data released by the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics.

This indicator has gained double-digit growth for the first time since 2022, rising by 6.2 percentage points from that of 2023 and 3.6% higher than that of the whole nation.

The electronics industry provided a strong support to the economy, with the added value growth of the computer, communication, and other electronic equipment manufacturing sectors seeing a rise of 23.2%.

Meanwhile, Guangdong has continued to increase its investment and accelerate the development of new quality productive forces, which injected new impetus into the economic recovery.

Fixed asset investment grew 4.3% year on year, with 1.8 percentage points higher than that of the year 2023. Notably, the investment in advanced manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing registered a 26.0% and 38.1% year-on-year increase.

Data also show that the retail sales of consumer goods climbed 6.1%year on year to 0.84 trillion RMB in the same period, with that rate being 0.3 percentage points higher than the 2023 full-year growth rate.

The sales of upgraded goods have been growing very fast since the beginning of this year. Specifically, the retail sales of sports and entertainment, telecommunication equipment, and new energy vehicles by enterprises above the designated size went up by 29.4%, 20.0%, and 17.3% respectively.

Yang pointed out that there is still room to boost residents' consumption confidence and suggested that the province can cultivate and expand new consumption, develop digital consumption, green consumption, and healthy consumption, as well as actively cultivate new consumption demands in areas such as smart homes, entertainment, tourism, sports events, and trendy Chinese products. (GD Today)