Zhuhai has maintained stable economic growth in the first five months of the year despite complicated global environment and the domestic COVID-19 pandemic situation, according to a report released on June 28 by the Zhuhai Statistics Bureau.

The city has managed to coordinate its COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control measures with economic and social development since the start of this year, firmly adhering to the "industry first" development strategy, while supporting the real economy.

The added value of industries above designated size expanded by 7.8 percent year-on-year from January to May to 59.62 billion yuan ($8.89 billion), and that of Zhuhai's seven pillar industries went up by 11.2 percent, which was 3.4 percentage points higher than the city's average.

Among them, the added value of theelectronic information, electrical appliances, as well as biological medicine industries above designated size soaredby 12.2 percent, 15.1 percent, and 17.3 percent respectively, while the added value of its hi-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing industries increased by 12.6 percent and 12.7 percent respectively.

Vigorous Zhuhai [Photo courtesy WeChat account: zhtqb12345]

Zhuhai's industrial investment achieved robust growth in the Jan-May period, with a 27.2 percent increase, which was 37.4 percentage points higher than the city's average growth rate. Of note, investment in industrial technological transformation grew by 11.8 percent.

The total retail sales of consumer goods decreased by 2.6 percent to 40.79 billion yuan ($6.08 billion) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the consumer price index (CPI) rose less than 0.3 percent.

A steady growth was also reported in Zhuhai's financial savings and loans in the first five months of 2022, with the renminbi balance of domestic and overseas financial institutions citywide increasing by 5.3 percent to 1.03 trillion yuan ($152.53 billion), as well as the renminbi loan balance increasing by 15.2 percent to 925.18 billion yuan ($138.02 billion).

Zhuhai's import and export volume saw a slight decrease during the January-May period. Its total foreign trade volume decreased by 5.3 percent to 128.41 billion yuan ($19.16 billion), among which the export volume went up by 8.1 percent.

The actual use of direct foreign investment shrank by 63.7 percent to $732 million, while the number of newly set-up foreign-investment enterprises stood at 742, a decrease of 34.2 percent compared with the previous year.