Shanxi province's economy was off to a good start in the first quarter of 2016 with the gross regional domestic product reaching 244.6 billion yuan ($37.67 billion), up by 3 percent year-on-year in comparable price terms.
The calculation showed that over the first three months primary industries achieved value added worth 12.11 billion yuan, an increase of 1.4 percent year-on-year, while secondary ones saw 94.35 billion yuan, down by 2 percent year-on-year, and tertiary ones had value added of 140.1 3billion yuan, a surge of 7.6 percent over the same period of last year.
The fixed-asset investment in Shanxi in the first quarter stood at 97.27 billion yuan, a 13 percent growth year-on-year; the figure has maintained a double-digit increase since May, 2015.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 1.2 percent, keeping the same level as that in the first two months and 0.9 percentage points lower than the national level of 2.1 percent. Total retail sales of consumer goods reached 148.59 billion yuan, up by 5.3 percent year-on-year.
In addition, thanks to ongoing efforts in industrial transformation and upgrades, Shanxi's economic restructuring has rationalized with non-coal industries accounting for an increasingly large proportion in the industrial sector. The structure of investment and export has further optimized and the service industry has maintained a good momentum to lead economic growth in the province.
Electricity consumption in Shanxi grew 0.3 percent in March, the first positive growth rate since August, 2014.
High-tech industries grew rapidly with the value added of automobile manufacturing increasing 12.3 percent and electric apparatus and equipment manufacturing surging by 12.6 percent.
Online sales above a designated size reached 600 million yuan in the first quarter with the fast integration of online and offline consumption.
Private fixed investment totaled 57.31 billion yuan during the period, an increase of 11.3 percent year-on-year and 58.9 percent of total fixed investment in the province.
Shanxi's sales of commercial housing grew by 52.6 percent by area and 62.2 percent by volume.
