Shanghai’s GDP grows 7 pct in Q1

Shanghai's economy grew 7 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter, below the national average of 7.4 percent and slowing from its pace of 7.6 percent in the previous three months, according to the Shanghai Statistics Bureau Friday.

The total economic output amounted to 531.3 billion yuan (US$86.4 billion) in the first quarter, during which the services sector expanded 8 percent, manufacturing increased 5.5 percent and agriculture rose 6.4 percent.

In the first three months, the city's industrial production rose 4 percent year on year, led by a robust automotive manufacturing sector which jumped 15 percent. The production of biomedicine also expanded 14.6 percent, but both information technology and oil refinery reported declining output, the bureau said.

Retail sales increased 11.2 percent in the first quarter, while fixed-asset investment rose 6.5 percent to 106 billion yuan, up from the pace of 4 percent in the January-February period.

With only 0.06 percent of China's land, 1.8 percent of its population and 1.7 percent of its investment, Shanghai produced more than 4 percent of the nation's overall economic output.