By FAN Xu, XIN Yuan

Shanghai’s gross domestic product (GDP) in H1 dropped 5.7 percent year on year to 1.9 trillion yuan (US$290 billion).  Two months of lockdown brought most of the city’s operations to a halt and  Q2 GDP dropped 13.7 percent. 

The days of woe came to an abrupt end when the city came back to life in May. Foreign trade and industrial production grew 9.6 percent and 15.8 percent in June.

“After the sudden drop in April, things got way better in May and June,” said SHEN Kaiyan, head of the Institute of Economics at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. “The city has shown itself highly resilient in the face of the outbreak.”

Output of enterprises with revenue above 20 million yuan slumped 23.2 percent in H1. In April, output was down 61.5 percent. In June, output grew by 15.8 percent year on year.

Output of integrated circuits and AI grew overall in H1, indicating just how much hi-tech has become the new engine of Shanghai’s growth.

The financial market in H1 grew 16.8 percent year on year to 1,362 trillion yuan.  The paid-in value of foreign direct investment was US$12.5 billion, up 0.2 percent over the same period last year, with foreign investment in science research up by 62.9 percent.

Despite the lockdown, Shanghai remained the port with the largest cargo handling capacity in the world. A total of 225.6 million TEU of cargo arrived and left the city in H1. By July, Shanghai was handling 130,000 TEUs a day, exceeding the same period last year.

New policies have alleviated some economic pressure. The number of new market entities bounced back, with a daily average of 1,257 new businesses in June, 40 percent higher than May.