Xinhua News Agency, Wuhan, April 22: Question: Hubei's GDP fell by nearly 40% in the first quarter. What do you think?
Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Haibo
In the first quarter, the GDP of Hubei Province fell by 39.2% year-on-year. On the evening of the 21st, the news released by the Hubei Provincial Statistics Bureau caused widespread concern in the society.
"The most difficult period has passed." Ye Fusheng, chief statistician of the Hubei Provincial Bureau of Statistics, believes that with the continuous improvement of the epidemic prevention and control situation, the resumption of production and business resumption in Hubei Province has proceeded in an orderly manner. The fundamentals and development trends of the province ’s long-term and stable economy have not changed.
According to the statistics of Hubei Provincial Bureau of Statistics, according to the results of the unified accounting of regional GDP, the GDP of the whole province in the first quarter of 2020 was 637.935 billion yuan, calculated at comparable prices, a decrease of 39.2% over the same period of the previous year. Among them, the added value of the primary industry was 54.068 billion yuan, down 25.3%; the added value of the second industry was 214.696 billion yuan, down 48.2%; the added value of the tertiary industry was 369.171 billion yuan, down 33.3%.
"In the first quarter of this year, Hubei Province and Wuhan City were basically 'closing the city' for more than two-thirds of the time." Ye Fusheng said that at this time in previous years, an average of more than 10 billion yuan in GDP could be created every day, which means / 3 time created 60% of GDP in the first quarter of last year.
"From this point of view, it is extremely difficult to maintain such a situation in the province during the extremely difficult special period when the Party Central Committee and the State Council fully implement the decision-making and deployment of the epidemic situation and economic and social development. Fusheng said.
Industrial enterprises were the first to be affected by the epidemic. According to data from the Hubei Provincial Department of Economics and Information, in the first three months, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size in Hubei Province decreased by 45.8% year-on-year. Among the 41 industries in the province, except for the added value of the three industries of tobacco products, other mining, and oil and gas mining, which maintained positive growth, 38 industries declined year-on-year. Among the 17 cities and prefectures in the province, Wuhan, Yichang, and Xiangyang fell by 39.7%, 46.9%, and 50.2% respectively.
"However, the industrial production order in the province's normalized epidemic prevention and control has accelerated recovery. The delay in resumption of work for nearly two months is catching up, and the decline in the main industrial economic indicators has begun to narrow, showing greater resilience." Hubei Province According to Wang Qiyang, director of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Information, Hubei Province has promoted the resumption of production in accordance with the grading, classification, time-sharing, safety and order of the district since March 15th. To over 95%. As of April 17, the rate of reinstatement and reinstatement of industrial enterprises in the province's regulations reached 98.2% and 93%, respectively, close to the national average.
Looking at the economic situation, we must not only see the difficulties and challenges, but also recognize the foundation and confidence. Although the economic growth rate of Hubei has declined, the industrial base remains strong.
Zhang Liyang, director of the Comprehensive Division of the Hubei Provincial Statistics Bureau, said that Hubei has a wide range of industrial categories and a strong supporting role for key industries, covering a total of 41 industry categories and 206 industry middle categories. A modern industrial system with relatively complete categories has been formed. In the first quarter, the province's comprehensive capacity recovery has been close to 60%, and the second quarter will be fully restored.
It should be noted that although consumer demand has shrunk, the market potential is still huge. Zhang Liyang said that the total retail sales of consumer goods in the province fell by 44.9% in the first quarter, but Hubei's market potential is huge. In recent years, it has maintained a stable and good development momentum. The per capita social average is higher than the national average.
It should be noted that although investment willingness has weakened, investment demand is still strong. In the first quarter, the province's investment growth rate dropped by 82.8%, but future development faces major opportunities. Professor Dong Dengxin, director of the Institute of Financial Securities of Wuhan University of Science and Technology, believes that the central government will continue to increase support for Hubei projects, and Hubei will also increase the construction of 5G network, biomedicine, public health and other shortcomings. The inherent advantages will be Will be consolidated and played.
"Looking at the economic situation, it is necessary to observe the current shape with a microscope and see the development trend with a telescope." Pan Helin, Executive Dean of the Digital Economy Research Institute of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, said a series of positive changes are converging to promote Hubei A powerful driving force for economic development to enter the normal track as soon as possible.
Since March, some important indicators are picking up. The data shows that the value-added of the industrial sector in March decreased by 32.9 percentage points from February, and the growth of major agricultural crops such as wheat and rapeseed was better than that of the previous year. The decline in retail sales of the upper limit of retail sales narrowed by 25.8 percentage points from the previous month. The decline in retail sales of key commodities such as petroleum products and petroleum products has narrowed significantly.
New industries, new formats and new models are bursting. Wu Xiaoqin, director of the Accounting Division of the Hubei Provincial Statistics Bureau, said that online consumption is recovering faster than offline. In March, Hubei's upper limit units' retail sales of goods through public networks decreased by 37.8 percentage points month-on-month. The new consumption patterns of community e-commerce and fresh e-commerce represented by Hema Xiansheng, Meicai Cereals and Oils, and Meijia Huinong have been rapidly developed.
At present, Hubei's economy already has the basic conditions to resume growth. The principal person in charge of the Hubei Provincial Government stated that he would strengthen his confidence and determination, pay close attention to the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, make good use of the national support policies, and take advantage of Hubei ’s strong industrial base, huge investment needs, and strong development momentum. We will do our utmost to grasp the progress of dispatching and fighting, and fight well the war for the protection of people's livelihood and the economic development.