Xing Huina:
Now you are welcome to ask questions. Please identify the media outlet you represent before raising your questions.
CCTV:
Mr. Wang just mentioned that the tax data reflects a better start to China's economic development so far this year. Can you tell us more about that? Thank you.
Wang Jun:
Thank you for your follow-up questions. I understand that you are trying to further understand some of the specifics of the economic operation in the first quarter of this year. Here I will try to use "six gradual upturns" to elaborate.
The first gradual upturn is that economic operations are gradually rebounding. Just now, I have briefly introduced the overall operating situation, which I will now subdivide by industry to provide a more detailed breakdown. In March, 79.7% of the national economy's 473 medium-class industries and 75.8% of its 1,382 small-class industries achieved positive growth, while the proportion in January and February was about 56%. Between April 1-5, the proportion of medium-class and small-class industries that achieved positive growth increased to 86.9% and 82.3%, respectively. I cite this specific example and list these specific numbers to tell you that the proportion right now is close to what it was in 2019 before the epidemic.
The second gradual upturn is that business entities are becoming gradually active. First, the number of new taxpaying business entities is gradually increasing. In the first quarter, their number hit 3.434 million, up 7.2% year on year, 8 percentage points higher compared with the full-year growth of last year. Second, business entities whose production and operation were hard hit by the epidemic are regaining vitality at a faster speed. In March, the number of taxpaying business entities that received invoices and had income declarations increased by 2.08 million and 3.12 million, respectively, compared with February and January.
The third gradual upturn is that industrial production is gradually recovering. In March, industrial enterprises' sales revenue grew 7% year on year, 1.2 percentage points higher compared with annual rate of last year. The year-on-year growth for manufacturers of intelligent consumption equipment and manufacturers of communications equipment reached 36.4% and 12%, respectively. Given the continual decline in the year-on-year growth of PPI, the increase in sales revenue was hard-won. In addition, in March, the amount of money spent on purchasing machinery and equipment by the manufacturing industry increased by 13.5% year on year, 7.1 percentage points higher than the full-year rate of 2022, which reflects the increasing willingness of enterprises to expand production and upgrade equipment.
The fourth gradual upturn is that consumer demand is gradually expanding. In the first quarter, catering and accommodation; culture, sports and entertainment; and residential services, among other contact-based service industries, notably rebounded, registering sales revenue growth of 22.8%, 13.7%, and 9.4% respectively year on year. The growth rates were 22.7, 17.6, and 6.5 percentage points higher compared with the annual growth of last year and exceeded the pre-epidemic 2019 level. Commodity retailing recovered steadily and faster, with sales revenue increasing by 11.6% year on year, 3.4 percentage points higher compared with the whole of last year. It is worth mentioning that housing consumption showed signs of rebounding, and the sales revenue growth of real estate reentered the positive territory in January and February, up 2.3% year on year, 19.5 percentage points higher than the annual growth of 2022. In March, the year-on-year growth further increased to 17.9%.
The fifth gradual upturn is that the innovation momentum is being gradually enhanced. In March, the high-tech industry sales revenue grew 15.6% year on year, 5.7 percentage points higher than the full-year growth of 2022. The growth rates for such high-tech services as services for applying sci-tech advances and information services were relatively faster, up 45.5% and 19.8% year on year, respectively. In March, core industries of the digital economy grew 14.1% year on year, 7.3 percentage points faster than that of last year. Among them, the digital factor-driven industry and digital technology application industry grew faster, up 24.5% and 19.8% year on year, respectively.
The sixth gradual upturn is that green development is getting gradually boosted. In the first quarter, sales revenue of the ecological protection and environmental governance industry increased by 18.1% year on year, while that of power generation based on wind energy, solar energy, and other clean energy increased by 21.8% year on year, both maintaining a high growth rate, significantly faster than the overall national level. In particular, the sales revenue of the new energy vehicle manufacturing industry maintained good growth momentum, rising 35.2% year on year in the first quarter, after an already high year-on-year growth of 111.5% in the first quarter of 2022.
Of course, while acknowledging that overall economic performance is moving in a positive direction, month by month, and will get better in the next step, we must also be keenly aware that there are still many uncertain and unstable factors at home and abroad. The internal driving force for high-quality development needs to be further strengthened. Although economic development faces various problems and difficulties, we are confident we will meet this year's economic growth target of around 5%. However, we need to work hard. Thank you.
