Top 10 National Cities by GDP Released! Central and Western Cities Show Overall Impressive Growth

　　On October 30, Shenzhen announced its economic data for the first three quarters, revealing the top ten cities nationwide by GDP. In terms of growth rate, Chengdu ranked first with a 6.7% increase, surpassing Shanghai (6%). Additionally, cities in central and western China performed well, with Chongqing and Wuhan's growth rates exceeding the national average (5.2%). Regarding provincial GDP, the gap between Sichuan and Henan has further narrowed, while Sichuan's provincial growth rate hit a new high, reaching 6.5% in the first three quarters, the fastest among the top ten provinces.

　　Six major economic provinces shoulder the responsibility of "stable growth"

　　According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, preliminary calculations show that the GDP for the first three quarters this year reached 91.3027 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.2% at constant prices. This growth rate has slowed compared to the first half of the year (5.5%).

　　Notably, the economic output of Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces both surpassed the 9 trillion yuan mark, continuing to lead the nation. Guangdong's economic output reached 9.616163 trillion yuan, and Jiangsu's reached 9.318 trillion yuan, far exceeding other provinces. Moreover, each of these two provinces accounts for more than one-tenth of the national total.

　　Guangdong, Jiangsu, along with Shandong, Zhejiang, Henan, and Sichuan—these six major economic provinces shoulder the responsibility of "stable growth." The economic outputs of the latter four provinces are 6.8125 trillion yuan, 5.9182 trillion yuan, 4.778544 trillion yuan, and 4.3387 trillion yuan respectively. Together, these six provinces account for nearly 45% of the national economy.

　　Hubei also surpassed the 4 trillion yuan threshold, with a GDP of 4.023797 trillion yuan. Fujian, Hunan, and Anhui follow closely, each with an economic output exceeding 3.5 trillion yuan. The top ten provinces account for 61.3% of the national GDP.

　　The competition for China's top economic province remains between Guangdong and Jiangsu. The economic output gap between the two was about 240 billion yuan in the first half of the year, expanding to 298.163 billion yuan in the first three quarters. However, in terms of growth rate, Jiangsu's 5.8% surpasses Guangdong's 4.5%.

　　In terms of growth rate, among the 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, 17 exceeded the national GDP growth rate in the first three quarters. They are Tibet (9.8%), Hainan (9.5%), Inner Mongolia (7.2%), Gansu (6.6%), Sichuan (6.5%), Ningxia (6.4%), Zhejiang (6.3%), Anhui (6.1%), Xinjiang (6.1%), Shandong (6.0%), Hubei (6.0%), Shanghai (6.0%), Jiangsu (5.8%), Jilin (5.8%), Chongqing (5.6%), Qinghai (5.6%), and Liaoning (5.3%). Hebei (5.2%) matched the national average.

　　The gap between Sichuan and Henan narrows; Anhui surpasses Shanghai again

　　Among the top ten provinces, those whose growth rates exceeded the national average (5.2%) in the first three quarters are Sichuan (6.5%), Zhejiang (6.3%), Anhui (6.1%), Shandong (6.0%), Hubei (6.0%), and Jiangsu (5.8%). Sichuan's economic growth shows strong momentum, moving from "lagging behind the nation" to "surpassing the nation."

　　Reviewing Sichuan's economic performance this year, the province's growth rate was 3.8% in the first quarter, 0.7 percentage points behind the national average; 5.5% in the first half of the year, matching the national average; and 6.5% in the first three quarters, 1.3 percentage points above the national average.

　　Zhu Keli, Executive Director of the China Information Association and Founding Director of the National Institute of New Economy Research, said in an interview that Sichuan's continuous progress in industrial structure adjustment and transformation and upgrading is inseparable from increased policy support, innovation-driven development, and opening-up efforts in recent years. He believes that Sichuan has introduced a series of policies to actively promote innovation-driven development and strengthen opening-up, attracting a batch of high-tech industries and quality enterprises, encouraging enterprises to increase investment in technological innovation, and promoting industrial transformation and upgrading, providing new momentum and support for Sichuan's economic growth.

　　Compared with the national level, Sichuan's growth rates for multiple economic indicators in the first three quarters exceeded the national average. The added value growth rates of the secondary and tertiary industries were 1.4 and 1.7 percentage points higher than the national average, respectively. The growth rates for the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were 3.8%, 5.8%, and 7.7%, respectively. The growth rates of industrial added value above designated size and total retail sales of consumer goods were 2.8 and 2.4 percentage points higher than the national average, respectively.

　　Notably, according to this year's third-quarter report data, the gap between Sichuan and Henan has narrowed again. Since taking the fifth place as the nation's fifth-largest economy in 2004, Henan has maintained this position for 19 consecutive years. However, sixth-ranked Sichuan is slowly catching up. In the first three quarters of last year, the GDP gap between Sichuan and Henan was more than 700 billion yuan, but it has now narrowed to nearly 440 billion yuan.

　　Additionally, Henan's growth rate (3.8%) in the first three quarters ranked last among the top ten provinces. Why is Henan's growth slower? Zhu Keli told Red Star Capital Bureau that it is mainly due to shortcomings in industrial structure optimization and transformation and upgrading, with innovation, technology, and talent development needing improvement. "As a traditional major agricultural province, Henan has made some progress in industrialization and urbanization in recent years but still faces challenges such as a relatively single industrial structure and increased pressure for transformation and upgrading."

　　Zhejiang continued its upward trend from the first half of the year, with growth rates of 3.9%, 5.1%, and 7.3% for the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, respectively. Similar to Sichuan, Zhejiang's tertiary industry growth rate is higher than other industries, driving economic development in the first three quarters. Meanwhile, Zhejiang's private enterprises continue to make significant contributions. In the first three quarters, the added value of private industrial enterprises above designated size in Zhejiang grew by 7.6%, contributing 95.7% to the growth of industrial added value above designated size.

　　Among the three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta, low-profile Anhui's performance is impressive. In the first three quarters, Anhui's GDP was 3.5653 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.1% at constant prices, matching the 6.1% growth rate of the first half of the year. Anhui once again surpassed Shanghai, leading by more than 260 billion yuan to continue ranking tenth nationwide.

　　Central and western cities show overall strong growth

　　As the third-quarter economic report cards of various cities are unveiled, the top ten cities remain familiar faces, ranked as Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Nanjing. Among them, Shanghai and Beijing remain the absolute leaders in the first tier, while Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Guangzhou have also entered the 2 trillion yuan club.

　　In terms of growth rate, the GDP growth rates of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Wuhan all exceeded the "national line" (5.2%). Among them, Chengdu ranked first with a 6.7% growth rate, surpassing Shanghai (6%).

　　As one of the core cities of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone and a highland for economic development in western China, Chengdu has increased efforts in recent years in technological innovation, talent introduction, and industrial upgrading.

　　Regionally, the central and western regions performed well. Besides Chengdu, the growth rates of central and western cities Chongqing (5.6%) and Wuhan (5.5%) both exceeded the national line. In the Yangtze River Delta, only Shanghai (6%) and Hangzhou (5.8%) passed the line, while Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta did not.

　　The overall growth performance of the central and western regions is impressive, which is not only due to the increased support from the national level for these regions in recent years but also benefits from the coordinated efforts in undertaking industrial transfer, promoting new urbanization, and strengthening environmental governance. Zhu Keli pointed out that the central and western regions themselves have abundant resources and vast markets. With the accelerated industrial upgrading and transformation in the eastern regions, the central and western regions actively undertake industrial transfer, strengthen the "wild goose formation" model, and simultaneously promote new urbanization and environmental governance. These factors provide new momentum and opportunities for economic growth in the central and western regions.

　　Outside the top ten, Ningbo and Qingdao are catching up rapidly. In the first three quarters of this year, the GDP of Ningbo and Qingdao were 1,181.73 billion and 1,176.911 billion respectively, with year-on-year growth rates of 5.7% and 6%, surpassing most of the top ten cities. Moreover, the GDP gap between the two cities is less than 5 billion.

　　Emerging industries will continue to maintain high growth rates.

　　We have now reached the "final battle" of the year's economy. Since the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter, Anhui, Sichuan, Shaanxi, and other places have continuously accelerated the implementation of major projects, and the investment growth trend is expected to continue.

　　Zhu Keli believes that in the last quarter, various regions will make efforts from multiple angles and adopt multiple measures to "fight for the economy." This includes increasing investment attraction efforts, actively introducing high-quality projects and enterprises to inject favorable conditions and new space for economic growth; strengthening innovation-driven development, promoting industrial upgrading and transformation, and improving the quality and efficiency of economic development; increasing infrastructure construction efforts, continuously improving the regional development environment, and providing good soft and hard support for economic development; strengthening talent introduction and training to provide strong talent guarantees for economic development and promote a positive interaction between talent and the economy.

　　Minsheng Bank's chief economist Wen Bin stated that advanced manufacturing is expected to accelerate in the fourth quarter. Recently, senior officials have frequently emphasized new industrialization and advanced manufacturing development. China will accelerate the implementation of the ten key industry growth stabilization plans and promote the effective implementation of growth stabilization policies. Emerging industries such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, 5G, intelligent connected vehicles, and new materials are expected to maintain high growth rates.

　　In addition, the central bank recently issued an additional 1 trillion yuan in special government bonds, all of which will be used for local disaster prevention, mitigation, relief, and post-disaster recovery and reconstruction. This trillion-yuan government bond will be fully allocated to local governments as transfer payments and does not require local repayment.

　　The issuance of an additional 1 trillion yuan in government bonds is accelerating the implementation of a large number of eligible projects. Some media reports indicate that local governments have previously been reserving related projects and are now working overtime to further improve project information. The newly issued government bonds can be used as project capital, playing a leverage role.

　　Zhu Keli believes that the additional trillion-yuan government bonds will help localities sprint in the last quarter by providing certain financial support and releasing liquidity dividends, promoting local economic development. These funds can be used for infrastructure construction, industrial transformation and upgrading, and livelihood improvement, providing strong support for high-quality local economic development. At the same time, local governments need to strengthen policy coordination and implementation, improve policy execution efficiency, and provide better services and guarantees for enterprise development.