Shanghai' economy performs well
By Liang Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-07-10 08:38

China's economic power-house witnessed impressively strong economic performance in the first half of this year, especially in the industrial sector.

Senior city officials said on Friday that Shanghai's economy is still on a stable and healthy track, though there are some emerging unfavourable signs that may drain the momentum of the metropolis' economic development.

Over the first six months, Shanghai chalked up a gross domestic product (GDP) volume of 341.77 billion yuan (US$41.3 billion), up 14.8 per cent compared with the same period last year, said Hu Yanzhao, the newly-appointed vice-mayor of Shanghai.

Hu announced the figures on Friday during a conference of top officials from industry and industrial organizations.

"Shanghai's economy is demonstrating a shape of 'steady soft landing,' as result of the State's macroeconomic measures to slow growth," said Hu. Hu revealed that the city's industrial sector contributed about 48 per cent to the local eye-catching GDP growth in the first half of this year.

Among a number of key indexes of the sector's performance, what is noteworthy is the total industrial output value that hit some 654.47 billion yuan (US$79 billion) during the January-June period, posting a 25.7 per cent yearly growth, said Xu Jianguo, director of the Shanghai Municipal Economic Commission.

Meanwhile, the city's industrial added value volume reached some 165.4 billion yuan (US$20 billion) over the first six months, reporting an 18.3 per cent year-on-year growth. The sector's total profit volume amounted to 44 billion yuan (US$5.32 billion) by the end of May, with more than 41 per cent growth compared with the same period last year.

Yet behind that encouraging scene, some thorny issues are emerging, Xu said.

"We have now felt much pressure to attract investment," he said, adding that the State authority's macroeconomic measures have led to tightened land supply, a bottleneck problem for local government at different levels to absorb outside investment.

Meanwhile, a tight fiscal policy has created problems for an increasing number of local industrial enterprises when collecting accounts receivable.There are also signs of growing stock of industrial products, according to Xu.



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