Latest Rankings! The Trillion-Yuan GDP Club Has Had Its Lineup Reshuffled Again.

The economic performance results for the first three quarters across the country have been successively unveiled. Among them, the data of the 29 cities with a GDP exceeding 1 trillion yuan that have attracted widespread attention have all been released.

Whether from the perspective of growth rate or ranking, the Trillion GDP Club is experiencing a new round of reshuffling. Which cities are temporarily falling behind and under pressure? Which are rising rapidly and stepping onto a new level? Which cities are seeing a slowdown in their pace of sprinting toward the 1-trillion-yuan GDP threshold?

01

In terms of overall performance, the cities in the Trillion GDP Club have fully demonstrated their role of "major cities taking on major responsibilities".

Among the 29 cities, only 5 cities, namely Chongqing, Changsha, Quanzhou, Xi'an and Foshan, recorded a growth rate lower than the national average level (4.6%). Especially among the top 10 GDP cities, only Chongqing's growth rate is slightly lower than the national overall level.

Specifically, Shenzhen, whose total GDP is second only to Shanghai and Beijing, posted a 6% growth rate in the first three quarters, ranking second only to Hefei which registered a 6.5% growth rate in the Trillion GDP Club. They are also the only two trillion-level cities whose GDP growth rate exceeded 6% in the first three quarters.

The root cause is that this round of AI industry boom is a key variable supporting the high growth of the two cities. In fact, almost all the cities widely recognized for seizing this round of artificial intelligence boom have achieved exceptionally high growth rates without exception. For example, in addition to Shenzhen and Hefei, Suzhou and Wuhan also recorded a GDP growth rate of 5.6% in the first three quarters, 1 percentage point higher than the national average level.

In addition, there are several points worthy of attention.

First, Guangzhou has made sudden efforts, posting a high growth rate of 5.7% in the first three quarters, hitting the highest level in the same period in the past five years, 1.6 percentage points higher than the same period last year. This has further narrowed the total GDP gap between Guangzhou and Chongqing, adding new suspense to the national competition for the "fourth largest GDP city".

Second, the competition between Qingdao and Tianjin for the "second largest city in northern China" is equally fierce. For the whole of last year, Tianjin's GDP led Qingdao by nearly 100 billion yuan, but in the first three quarters of this year, Qingdao has overtaken Tianjin by nearly 7 billion yuan. However, Tianjin has always had a strong momentum of sprinting at the end of the year, so the annual ranking still has variables.

Third, compared with the same period last year, Wuxi overtook Changsha, Hefei overtook Jinan, and Dongguan led Xi'an and Foshan.

Of course, among these cities, Wuxi had already overtaken Changsha for the whole of last year.

02

As for the five cities of Chongqing, Changsha, Quanzhou, Xi'an and Foshan that failed to outperform the national overall level, their reasons are different.

Chongqing's situation is mainly due to its pillar industry manufacturing sector is still in the adjustment stage. In the first three quarters, the added value of Chongqing's secondary industry increased by 1.7% year on year, the lowest growth rate among the three industries, and the added value of industries above designated size increased by 3.5%, 2.1 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points lower than the national level respectively.

Changsha, Xi'an and Foshan are under pressure from industrial development and fixed asset investment. As a key foreign trade hub, Quanzhou's slowdown in growth rate is mainly dragged down by foreign trade.

Of course, these cities also have many bright spots. For example, the output of motorcycles and lithium-ion battery products in Chongqing increased by 51.9% and 41.6% respectively. Xi'an's foreign trade growth rate is as high as 115.5%, ranking first among cities in central and western China in terms of total foreign trade volume.

For the whole year, the biggest highlight of the Trillion GDP Club this year is that it will welcome new expansions.

In the first three quarters, Xuzhou's GDP reached 759.1445 billion yuan, up 5.1% year on year, and it is expected to be promoted to the trillion-yuan echelon for the whole year. By then, the top 30 cities in China by GDP will all cross the 1-trillion-yuan threshold.

At the same time, the 2-trillion-yuan club will also welcome a new member Nanjing, which means that all the top 10 cities in terms of GDP will exceed 2 trillion yuan. In addition, Shenzhen's full-year GDP is expected to exceed 4 trillion yuan, and Shanghai is expected to become the first city in China with a GDP exceeding 6 trillion yuan.

On the whole, the overall development quality of China's leading cities will be further improved.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "West City Stories", written by Western Jun, and published by 36Kr with authorization.