Recent data released by the Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Statistics indicates that the province's economy started the year on a strong footing during January and February, with accelerated production supply and recovering market demand.
Industrial production accelerated, supported significantly by key sectors. The value-added of industrial enterprises above the designated size grew by 9.8% year-on-year during the two-month period, an increase of 2.9 percentage points compared to the full-year growth rate of the previous year. Among 37 major industrial categories, 32 sectors experienced positive growth in value-added. Notably, industries such as computer and communication electronics, automotive, general-purpose equipment, electrical machinery, and production and supply of electric power and heat power recorded value-added growth rates of 24.0%, 16.7%, 11.8%, 10.6%, and 9.4% respectively, collectively contributing 5.9 percentage points to the overall growth of industrial value-added for large enterprises. Value-added from private industrial enterprises above the designated size increased by 10.6%, contributing 7.4 percentage points to the total growth.
Investment scale expanded, with continuous strengthening in民生领域 investment. Fixed-asset investment grew by 1.0% year-on-year from January to February. When excluding real estate development investment, fixed-asset investment increased by 8.2%. Investment in key sectors grew rapidly: infrastructure investment rose by 9.8%, accounting for 26.9% of total investment, a year-on-year increase of 2.2 percentage points in share. Manufacturing investment grew by 13.7%, while investment in transportation, energy, water conservancy, and ecological environmental protection increased by 12.3%. High-tech industry investment rose by 7.1%, and investment in equipment, tools, and器具 purchases grew by 6.2%.
Market sales showed improvement, with strong growth in quality-focused consumption. Total retail sales of consumer goods reached 633.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.9%, which was 0.9 percentage points higher than the full-year growth rate of the previous year. Consumption of daily necessities remained robust: retail sales of beverages, tobacco and alcohol, daily necessities, grain and oil food, and clothing, footwear, hats, and textiles by units above the designated size increased by 31.3%, 28.9%, 21.6%, 16.0%, and 14.6% respectively. Retail sales of wearable smart devices, photographic equipment, smartphones, computers, and related products by units above the designated size surged by 280%, 230%, 47.4%, and 43.6% respectively. Online consumption remained active, with retail sales via public networks by units above the designated size growing by 22.2%.
Export growth outpaced the national average, with private enterprises making a prominent contribution. Total goods import and export value reached 989.0 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.1%. Exports amounted to 768.5 billion yuan, growing by 21.4%, a rate higher than the national average. Imports were 220.5 billion yuan, up by 4.3%. The shares of total import-export value, exports, and imports in the national total were 12.8%, 16.6%, and 7.1% respectively. Private enterprises played a standout role, with their import-export value reaching 827.1 billion yuan, a growth of 20.5%, accounting for 83.6% of the province's total and contributing 16.7 percentage points to the province's import-export growth. Exports continued to shift towards "new" sectors, driven by strong global demand for new energy, artificial intelligence, and high-end manufacturing. Exports of mechanical and electrical products grew by 21.9% to 366.2 billion yuan. Exports of the "new three" categories surged by 47.4%, with exports of electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries increasing by 110% and 120% respectively.
Passenger and freight transport remained stable and orderly, while financial supply increased steadily. Passenger traffic reached 89.4 million persons, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%, with railway passenger traffic growing by 3.2%. Passenger turnover was 15.9 billion passenger-kilometers, down by 2.0%. Freight volume was 609 million tons, up by 15.2% year-on-year, with road and waterway freight volume increasing by 18.0% and 9.6% respectively. Freight turnover reached 281.6 billion ton-kilometers, growing by 9.8%.
By the end of February, the balance of local and foreign currency deposits and loans in financial institutions was 25.2 trillion yuan and 26.4 trillion yuan respectively, increasing by 6.7% and 7.6% year-on-year. Loans to enterprises and institutions grew by 11.5%.
Consumer prices experienced a moderate rise, while the decline in industrial producer prices narrowed. The Consumer Price Index increased by 0.7% year-on-year from January to February. Among the eight major categories of goods and services, prices for six categories rose while two fell. Prices for other supplies and services, clothing, household items and services, food, tobacco, alcohol, and catering services, healthcare, and education, culture, and entertainment increased by 17.7%, 2.6%, 1.9%, 1.0%, 0.8%, and 0.5% respectively. Prices for transportation and communication, and housing decreased by 2.6% and 0.1% respectively. In February alone, the CPI rose by 1.4% year-on-year and 1.3% month-on-month.
The Industrial Producer Price Index and the Industrial Purchaser Price Index fell by 1.5% and 1.4% year-on-year respectively during January-February. In February, the PPI and the purchasing price for industrial producers decreased by 1.4% and 1.3% year-on-year respectively, with the rate of decline narrowing by 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous month. On a month-on-month basis, they increased by 0.2% and 0.3% respectively.
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