The national economy achieved a strong start to the year in the first quarter. According to preliminary calculations, the gross domestic product (GDP) reached 33.4193 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.0% calculated at constant prices. This growth rate is 0.5 percentage points faster than the fourth quarter of the previous year.
The first-quarter performance was commendable overall. It fully demonstrated the strong resilience of the Chinese economy. Since the beginning of the year, external instabilities and uncertainties have increased significantly, with spillover effects from geopolitical conflicts. Facing a complex situation, authorities promptly intensified macroeconomic adjustments, implementing more proactive and effective macro policies ahead of schedule. By leveraging China's significant advantages of stable industrial and supply chains and strong supporting capabilities, the country effectively responded to external changes, mitigated external risks, and promoted a steady economic recovery.
Data indicates improvements on both the supply and demand sides. On the production side, agricultural conditions were favorable. Industrial value-added accelerated by 1.1 percentage points compared to the previous quarter, while the service sector also maintained rapid growth, with service sector value-added increasing by 5.2%. On the demand side, the total retail sales of consumer goods in the first quarter grew at a year-on-year rate that was 0.7 percentage points faster than the fourth quarter of the previous year. Fixed asset investment turned positive, registering a growth of 1.7% in the quarter. The quarterly growth rate of total goods imports and exports was the highest in nearly five years.
This fully reflects the vigorous vitality of the economy. Emerging industries and the new economy are increasingly becoming backbone forces driving economic growth, playing a stabilizing role. The new energy vehicle industry has achieved global leadership in both production and sales scale and quality, becoming a benchmark for industry development.
The performance also fully reflects the quality of China's high-quality development. In the first quarter, the share of equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing in the value-added of industrial enterprises above the designated size further increased, rising by 1.4 and 1.2 percentage points year-on-year, respectively. The ratio of per capita disposable income between urban and rural residents was 2.23, narrowing by 0.04 year-on-year. Income growth for residents in the central and western regions continued to outpace that of the eastern region. Furthermore, the employment situation remained generally stable, prices showed positive changes, the supply of essential consumer goods was sufficient, and efforts to curb "involutionary" competition showed continuous results. The pilot program for comprehensive opening up of the service sector was expanded, the Hainan Free Trade Port operated smoothly and orderly, and the number of China's pilot free trade zones further increased to 23. These data points demonstrate the significant achievements of high-quality development.
It also fully showcases China's institutional advantages and policy effectiveness. Affected by current geopolitical conflicts, international energy prices have risen sharply, leading to soaring oil prices and supply shortages in some countries, severely impacting production and life. In contrast, domestically, energy and resource supply remained stable and orderly, with timely implementation of temporary price controls. The lives of residents and the production of enterprises were largely unaffected, with ample and well-supported energy supply for production and daily use. This benefits from years of forward-looking布局 in developing the new energy industry and building a diversified energy supply system, which has greatly enhanced the autonomy and stability of the economy. Currently, petroleum accounts for less than 20% of the total energy consumption, while the role of coal as a foundational guarantee has strengthened, accounting for over 50%. In recent years, new energy sources like wind and solar power have developed rapidly, and the share of non-fossil energy consumption has increased. Overall, fluctuations in the international crude oil market have had a relatively small impact on the domestic market.
Notably, the national Producer Price Index (PPI) rose by 0.5% year-on-year in March. This is an important positive signal, ending a streak of 41 consecutive months of year-on-year decline (it fell by 0.9% the previous month). On a monthly basis, PPI increased by 1%, marking the sixth consecutive month of increase. This positive change in PPI is conducive to smoothing economic circulation, further improving corporate profits, and solidifying the micro-level foundation for the economic recovery and improvement.
Consumption, being the final demand, is the fundamental force for economic growth. Since the beginning of the year, regions and departments have deeply implemented actions to boost consumption, carried out policies for replacing old consumer goods with higher quality and efficiency, accelerated the cultivation of new growth points in service consumption, and promoted positive trends in the consumer market. In the first quarter, total retail sales of consumer goods approached 13 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.4%.
Goods consumption showed steady growth with an upward trend. In the first quarter, retail sales of goods increased by 2.2% year-on-year, with the growth rate accelerating by 0.7 percentage points compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year. Sales of basic necessities and some premium goods performed well. Sales of grain, oil, and food products above the designated size grew rapidly, and sales of upgrading goods like communication equipment and cultural and office supplies showed good growth momentum. The role of the quality-and-efficiency-focused consumer goods replacement policy in driving consumption continued to be evident. In the first quarter, sales revenue from replacing old consumer goods exceeded 430 billion yuan, benefiting over 60 million person-times.
Service consumption grew relatively fast. With the implementation of the plan to accelerate the cultivation of new growth points in service consumption, service consumption maintained rapid growth. In the first quarter, service retail sales increased by 5.5% year-on-year, 3.3 percentage points higher than the growth rate of goods retail sales. Holiday consumption continued to heat up, the number of resident trips increased significantly, and consumption potential in areas like culture, tourism, and sports events was continuously unleashed.
New forms of consumption potential were released. New business formats, models, and scenarios emerged continuously, and online consumption and digital consumption developed favorably. In the first quarter, online retail sales of goods and services increased by 8% year-on-year, significantly faster than the growth rate of total retail sales of consumer goods.
Since the beginning of the year, regions and departments have continuously expanded domestic demand, optimized supply, deeply explored and released the potential of effective investment, issued the lists for the advance batch and the first batch of major projects and central government budget investment plans, intensified efforts to utilize ultra-long-term special government bonds and local government special bonds with higher quality and efficiency, improved the mechanism for private enterprise participation in major projects, and adopted multiple measures to turn investment growth positive. Investment grew by 1.7% year-on-year in the first quarter, compared to a decline of 3.8% in the previous year, thus playing a key role in optimizing supply.
Investment in key areas grew rapidly. As this year marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, all parties seized opportunities to promote the commencement of major projects and increased efforts in new infrastructure construction, leading to an acceleration in infrastructure investment. In the first quarter, infrastructure investment increased by 8.9% year-on-year, with the growth rate accelerating by 8.3 percentage points compared to the full year 2025. The pace of commencing large projects accelerated. Investment in projects with a total planned investment of 100 million yuan or more increased by 4.5% year-on-year in the first quarter. With the upgrading and transformation of traditional industries and the accelerated development of emerging industries, manufacturing investment showed a steady recovery trend. In the first quarter, manufacturing investment grew by 4.1%, accelerating by 3.5 percentage points compared to the full year 2025.
Investment in emerging sectors showed good growth momentum. In the first quarter, investment in high-tech manufacturing increased by 5.2% year-on-year. Within this, investment in aerospace vehicle and equipment manufacturing, and electronic and communication equipment manufacturing grew by 19% and 6.6%, respectively. Producer services extended towards specialization and the high end of the value chain, effectively activating new drivers for investment. In the first quarter, investment in high-tech services increased by 12.3% year-on-year.
Investment to strengthen weak links in urban and rural areas increased. With the continuous advancement of new urbanization, investment in urban renewal and renovation continued to increase. In the first quarter, investment in public facilities management grew by 5.7%. Investment in social and livelihood sectors was intensified. In the first quarter, efforts to strengthen the construction of livelihood-related infrastructure continued. Investment in the production and supply of power, heat, gas, and water grew by 9% year-on-year, investment in ecological protection and environmental治理 grew by 9%, and investment in agriculture-related sectors like agricultural and sideline food processing grew by 5.5%.
Investment in intellectual property products maintained relatively fast growth. Investment in intellectual property products has maintained a relatively high growth rate in recent years. From 2023 to 2025, the average growth rate of investment in intellectual property products exceeded 9%. In 2025, the total scale of investment in intellectual property products exceeded 6.9 trillion yuan. In the first quarter of this year, the growth rate of investment in intellectual property products reached 7.9%, and its share in total investment exceeded 12%.
Despite a complex and changing international environment where unpredictable factors may increase, and despite some difficulties and challenges in domestic economic operations, there is full confidence in achieving stable annual economic performance and high-quality development, thanks to strong institutional advantages, accumulated industrial strengths, market advantages, and talent advantages.
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