Sixteen major cities in the Yangtze River Delta, the economic
engine of east China, saw their consumption growth exceed their GDP
growth in the first half, sources with local statistical
authorities said on Wednesday.
The cities are Shanghai and eight in Jiangsu Province, including
Nanjing, Nantong and Wuxi, and seven in Zhejiang Province,
including Hangzhou and Ningbo.
The sources said first-half retail sales amounted to 701.3
billion yuan (92.6 billion US dollars), a growth of 15.8 percent on
the same period last year. The growth rate was one percentage point
higher and 0.4 percentage points higher than the national
average.
Meanwhile, the eight cities in Jiangsu recorded a GDP growth of
15 percent, the seven cities in Zhejiang more than 14 percent, and
Shanghai 13 percent.
The GDP for the whole delta region reached 2.15 trillion yuan in
the first half. Zhejiang's seven cities accounted for 29.1 percent
of the total, Jiangsu's eight cities made up for 45 percent and
Shanghai 25 percent or so.
The sources said the seven cities in Zhejiang recorded a
per-capita disposable income of more than 10,000 yuan for the whole
of the first half, including Shaoxing, which had the highest
per-capita income of the 16 cities at 12,362 yuan. It was followed
by Shanghai with 12,278 yuan, up 14.7 percent from the same period
last year. But among the eight cities in Jiangsu, only Suzhou,
Nanjing and Wuxi had their per-capita disposable income exceed
10,000 yuan.
Of China's three major economic driving forces -- exports,
investment and domestic demand -- consumption at home has been
given priority in recent years.
(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2007)
