In this June 15, 2022 photo, a worker checks the carbon fiber production line in a factory in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province of China. (PHOTO / VCG)
BEIJING – China's gross domestic product expanded 2.5 percent year on year in the first half of 2022, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday.
In the second quarter, the country's GDP grew 0.4 percent year on year, according to the data.
The Chinese economy faced marked increases of downward pressure in the second quarter due to a complex global environment and domestic COVID-19 resurgences, with steep falls of major economic indicators in April.
Thanks to a slew of supportive policies, the country's major economic indicators saw narrowed declines in May and rebounds in June, helping achieve a positive Q2 growth.
“The economic growth didn't come by easily," the NBS said in a statement.
Industrial output
The country’s value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 3.4 percent year on year in the first half of 2022.
In June alone, industrial output growth quickened to 3.9 percent year on year, expanding by 3.2 percentage points from that in May, according to the NBS.
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The industrial output is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about $2.96 million).
Fixed-asset investment
China's fixed-asset investment jumped 6.1 percent from a year earlier to 27.14 trillion yuan (about $4.02 trillion) in the first half, the NBS data showed.
Thanks to a slew of supportive policies, the country's major economic indicators saw narrowed declines in May and rebounds in June, helping achieve a positive Q2 growth
The growth slowed from a 6.2-percent increase registered in the first five months. In June, fixed-asset investment picked up 0.95 percent from a month earlier.
From January to June, fixed-asset investment from the private sector increased 3.5 percent from a year earlier to 15.31 trillion yuan.
Resident nominal disposable income
China's per capita disposable income stood at 18,463 yuan (about $2,735) in the first half of 2022, up 4.7 percent year on year in nominal terms, the data showed.
After deducting price factors, per capita disposable income rose 3 percent from the previous year.
Separately, urban per capita disposable income came in at 25,003 yuan, up 3.6 percent in nominal terms and 1.9 percent in real terms, while per capita income in rural areas stood at 9,787 yuan, up 5.8 percent in nominal terms and 4.2 percent in real terms.
Retail sales
China's retail sales of consumer goods went up 3.1 percent year on year in June, NBS data showed.
Home prices
Home prices in China’s 70 large and medium-sized cities displayed a generally stable trend in June, the data showed on Friday.
Thirty-one out of the 70 cities saw a month-on-month growth in new home sales prices in June, up 6 from May.
Four first-tier cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou – saw their new home prices edge up 0.5 percent month on month in June, widening 0.1 percentage points from May.
New home prices in 31 second-tier cities reversed the month-on-month decline in May to register a growth of 0.1 percent, while 35 third-tier cities saw a month-on-month decline of 0.3 percent, the same level as that in May.
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Prices of resale homes in the four first-tier cities increased 0.1 percent in June. Second-tier and third-tier cities saw their prices of resale homes inch down 0.1 percent and 0.3 percent on a monthly basis, respectively.
Urban unemployment
In the first half of the year, the country’s surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.7 percent, with a total of 6.54 million new urban jobs created during the period.
In June, the surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent, down from 5.9 percent in May.
The surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities came in at 5.8 percent in June, down 1.1 percentage points from May.