by XIN Yuan

For the first three quarters of 2023, among the 24 Chinese cities with trillion-yuan GDP, 13 grew faster than the national average of 5.2 percent.

Yangtze River Delta dominates

Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen remain the top three cities, with GDP of 3.3 trillion yuan (US$450 billion), 3.2 trillion yuan, and 2.4 billion yuan respectively. Six cities are in the Yangtze River Delta and only two are from the Pearl River Delta.

Suzhou is the leading force in the manufacturing sector nationwide. In the first nine months, industrial output value passed 3.2 trillion yuan, with high-tech manufacturing accounting for 36.4 percent of the total.

Nanjing’s aerospace equipment manufacturing increased by a quarter, Ningbo’s new energy secctor rose by almost as much.

Chongqing

Chongqing outperformed Guangzhou making it the fourth largest city. In the first three quarters of this year, Chongqing generated 2.22 trillion yuan, exceeding Guangzhou by 47.4 billion yuan. Chongqing grew by 5.6 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters, while Guangzhou only grew by 4.2 percent, behind the national average.

Yantai and Changzhou aiming for the trillion-yuan club

Two cities are closing in on the trillion-yuan club threshold. Yantai's GDP reached 726 billion yuan, growing by 6.7 percent year-on-year. Changzhou's economic output for the first three quarters reached 700 billion yuan, with a similar growth rate of 6.7 percent.

New energy is the driving force of Changzhou's growth, up by 19.9 percent. Yantai is driven by its industrial and consumer sectors. In the first three quarters, the added value of large-scale industries in Yantai grew by 11.6 percent year-on-year.