The release of new data on the GDP of China’s provincial capitals for the first half of 2017 shows that Guangzhou remains the most affluent of the urban political centres, while Guiyang’s economy posted the most rapid growth.
Data compiled by 21st Century Business Herald on the GDP of China’s 26 provincial capitals (which does not include the directly administered municipalities of Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, or Tianjin) indicates that Guangzhou’s first half GDP was 989.148 billion yuan (USD$148.24 billion), well ahead of second-place holder Chengdu, the figure for which was 611.14 billion yuan.
The Hubei province capital of Wuhan, the Zhejiang province capital of Hangzhou, and the Jiangsu province capital of Nanjing served to round out the top five list of provincial capitals in terms of first half GDP.
China’s provincial capitals ranked in terms of H1 2017 GDP
- Guangzhou: 989.148 billion yuan.
- Chengdu: 611.14 billion yuan.
- Wuhan: 601.908 billion yuan.
- Hangzhou: 568.9 billion yuan.
- Nanjing: 548.873 billion yuan.
- Changsha: 475.735 billion yuan.
- Zhengzhou: 404.023 billion yuan.
- Ji’nan: 341.4 billion yuan.
- Xi’an: 330.408 billion yuan.
- Hefei: 289.69 billion yuan.
- Shijiazhuang: 285 billion yuan.
- Fuzhou: 280.685 billion yuan.
- Changchun: 265.11 billion yuan.
- Harbin: 242.49 billion yuan.
- Shenyang: 241.22 billion yuan
- Nanchang: 209.27 billion yuan.
- Kunming 204.911 billion yuan.
- Nanning: 180.731 billion yuan.
- Taiyuan: 151.588 billion yuan.
- Guizhou:145.599 billion yuan.
- Hohhot: 137.39 billion yuan.
- Urumqi: 116.487 billion yuan.
- Lanzhou: 110.81 billion yuan.
- Yinchuan: 73.325 billion yuan.
- Haikou: 70.435 billion yuan.
- Xining: 61.156 billion yuan.
The smaller provincial capitals of Guiyang (Guizhou province), Xining (Qinghai province) and Kunming (Yunnan province) topped the list of provincial capitals in terms of real GDP growth.
China’s provincial capitals ranked in terms of H1 2017 GDP Growth (brackets indicate nominal growth)
- Guiyang: 11.6% (nominal growth: 11.80%).
- Xining: 9.6% (13.57%).
- Kunming: 9.6% (9.9%).
- Nanchang 9.1% (15.63%).
- Fuzhou: 9% (12.30%).
- Nanning: 8.8% (11.85%).
- Changsha: 8.5% (11.15%).
- Hefei: 8.4% (12.48%).
- Yinchuan: 8.3% (17.11%).
- Ji’nan: 8.3% (10.23%).
- Chengdu: 8.2% (9.32%).
- Zhengzhou: 8.1%. (14.22%).
- Hangzhou: 8.1% (13.30%).
- Nanjing: 8% (12.56%).
- Changchun: 8% (11.32%).
- Guangzhou: 7.9% (11.84%).
- Xi’an: 7.6% (23.06%).
- Wuhan: 7.5% (12.59%).
- Urumqi: 7.3% (12.21%).
- Haikou: 7.3% (9.13%).
- Shijiazhuang: 7.3% (5.95%).
- Hohhot: 7.3% (2.46%).
- Taiyuan: 7.1% (12.35%).
- Harbin: 6.6% (0.53%).
- Lanzhou: 6.3% (11.29%).
- Shenyang: -0.4% (-24.06%).
A key change in the GDP data for China’s provincial capitals has been the rising contribution made by the services sector to economic growth – particularly in more developed parts of the country, as well as slower secondary industry growth.
In Guangzhou – the Chinese provincial capital with the largest services sector share of GDP; tertiary sector added value as a share of the total rose by 1.49 percentage points, pushing its rate of contribution to economic growth to 80.6%.
Guangzhou’s primary industry, secondary industry and tertiary industry value added growth was 0.2%, 4.8% and 9.5% respectively for the first half. Primary industry only accounted for 0.99% of GDP, while for secondary industry the figure was 29.45% and tertiary industry 66.56%.
In the Zhejiang province capital of Hangzhou, just an hour away from Shanghai by train, the services sector’s share of total GDP in the first half was 62.1%.
Services sector sector value added growth in the first half was 11.2%, nearly three times the figure of 3.9% for secondary industry.
In the ancient historic city and Shaanxi province capital of Xi’an the service sector account for 64.5% of GDP, while the growth rates for secondary and tertiary industry were 5.4% and 9.4% respectively.
