Beijing's GDP totaled 1.92 trillion yuan (about 297 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2021, up 13.4% year on year, according to a press conference organized by the municipal government on July 19.
"In the second quarter, the two-year average economic growth rate accelerated compared with the first quarter, demonstrating the steady recovery of Beijing's economy," said Zhu Yannan, deputy head of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics. "This also laid the foundation for the sustained recovery of Beijing's economy in the second half of the year."
The added value to Beijing's secondary industry soared 32.5% to 329.3 billion yuan in the first six months of the year, while the city's tertiary industry rose 10.1% to 1.6 trillion yuan, as announced at the press conference.
Although the proportion of the city's primary industry in the city's economy has declined due to economic structural adjustments, the recovery of its live pig production capacity and the boom in rural tourism both signal its gradual recovery. In the first half of the year, the number of people partaking in agriculture and rural tourism in Beijing equaled 66.1% of the total during the same period in 2019, which is 2.3 percentage points higher than in the first quarter. Meanwhile, revenue recovered to nearly 90% of the total during same period in 2019.
In terms of industry, the city's industry added value above designated size increased by 41.4% year-on-year in the first half of the year, at comparable prices, and the two-year average growth rate was 16.7%, an increase of 3.0 and 8.0 percentage points over the first quarter, respectively.
In the service industry, the added value of the city's tertiary sector in the first half of the year increased by 10.1% when calculated at comparable prices. Within it, the information transmission, software, and information technology service industries achieved an added value of 350.09 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.2%; the financial industry achieved an added value of 369.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5%; and the scientific research and technical service industry achieved an added value of 153.84 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%. The above three key industries have contributed more than 50% to the growth of the service industry.
Beijing also saw its investment in fixed assets increase 9.2% year on year during the same period. Its total consumption volume registered a robust growth of 22.1%.
Bian Jing, deputy head of the Survey Office of the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing, predicted that as the economy recovers steadily, there is a high probability that CPI will continue to maintain a moderate upward trend in the second half of the year.
