(Yicai Global) Oct. 26 -- Gross domestic product has already returned to growth in China’s southeastern Guangdong, the Chinese province with the largest economy, as the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River held to their status as having the fastest economic growth, show economic data for this year’s first three quarters various Chinese provincial governments announced on.

Provincial economic growth steadily rebounded in the reporting period, with GDP increases of 14 provinces above 2 percent, show the economic data for the first three quarters 27 provincial governments have issued since yesterday. Southwestern Guizhou province achieved the highest growth at 3.2 percent, while that of regions in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River held out in the front rank.

Guangdong province’s GDP tallied about CNY7.84 trillion (USD1.17 trillion) in the first three quarters in an annual 0.7 percent rise, and in growth catching up with the national average, which jumped by 3.2 percentage points from the overall first-half increase on the springboard of the strong third-quarter economic rebound.

Sanitary ware exporter Guangdong Meijie Faucet Group’s overseas orders reached the same level as last year’s, Luo Xiaohua, its president, confirmed to Yicai Global, saying, “We are now all hurrying to meet customer demand, and I feel no difference from last year.”

Slammed by the downturn in foreign trade, Guangdong experienced sluggish growth in the first half, Peng Peng, executive director of Guangdong System Reform Research Society, told Yicai Global, adding that, as the top-ranking province nationwide in foreign trade, it logged a greater economic resurgence as the growth in its overseas commerce steadied in the third quarter.

Flourishing Inland

In addition to eastern Jiangsu, the top 10-ranked provinces for economic growth for the first three quarters are seven in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, as well as northwestern Gansu and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Guizhou, among the seven, took the lead among provinces announcing their economic data by racking up regional GDP of CNY1.27 trillion in the first three quarters, up 3.2 percent from the same time last year in an increase that notched up 1.7 percentage points from the first half.

The middle and upper Yangtze River area has benefited from the shunting of many industries from both the river’s delta region and the southern Pearl River Delta, which has accelerated its industrialization and urbanization, and this factor mainly accounts for its nation-leading economic growth, Ding Changfa, an associate professor at Xiamen University’s School of Economics, explained to Yicai Global.

The Covid-19 pandemic barely touched southwestern Guizhou and its neighboring Yunnan province, whose infrastructure has long been their Achilles heel, Peng noted. Infrastructure construction has now buoyed their economies in the post-Covid-19 era, however, he said.

Still Languishing

The north-central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, northeastern Liaoning province, the eastern megacity of Tianjin and many other places also suffered from slow economic growth in the first nine months, in addition to central Hubei province, which was hardest hit by the coronavirus. Growth in Inner Mongolia and Liaoning has not yet returned to positive, the data also show.

Heavy and chemical industries dominate most of these regions’ industrial structures and Inner Mongolia’s energy sector contributes greatly to its economic growth, while heavy and chemical sectors like iron and steel and petrochemicals also make up a huge proportion of Liaoning and Tianjin’s economic growth, with correspondingly backward private and new economies, Ding further noted, adding economic data in these regions thus also relatively lags.

Hubei province, formerly in the eye of the Covid-19 storm, suffered 10.4 percent economic contraction in the first three quarters, a decline that greatly narrowed from the first half’s 19.3 percent overall annual drop, the data also indicate.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Ben Armour