Shanghai has just seen a sizeable rise in a key index that assesses its overall level of development has a regional and international financial centre.
On 27 September the China Economic Information Service (CEIS) and the Shanghai Financial Association (SFA) jointly released the latest iteration of the Shanghai Financial Prosperity Index (上海金融景气指数).
The Index came in at 5560.27, for a year-on-year (YoY) rise of 12.9%, and a 5.6% acceleration in YoY growth compared to the release of the last print.
The Index assesses the development of the Shanghai financial sector across six areas, including financial markets, financial institutions, financial sector personnel, financial internationalisation, financial innovations and financial ecosystem and environment.
Shanghai saw especially strong growth in its financial ecosystem and environment sub-index, with a rise of 24.6%.
Since 2006 the Index has seen an average compound annual growth rate of 12.1%, ahead of the average compound annual growth rate of 9.8% in Shanghai’s GDP.
As of 2021 the added value of Shanghai’s financial sector reached 797.325 billion yuan, accounting for 18.5% of the total municipal economy, as well as 8.7% of the added value of China’s national financial sector.
In 2021 Shanghai’s total renminbi cross-border transactions hit 17.98 trillion yuan, accounting for nearly one fifth of the national total.
As of the end of 2021 Shanghai’s financial sector was also host to approximately half a million employees.
