The "First Quarterly Report" on the economic performance of 31 provinces in my country has been released. Data show that in the first quarter of this year, major economic provinces such as Shandong and Zhejiang stabilized the country's economic fundamentals by relying on their large size and high growth rate. At the same time, the potential of the western region is accelerating, with the GDP (gross domestic product) growth rates of Tibet and Gansu at the forefront, reaching 6.1% and 5.9% respectively. In terms of growth momentum, high-tech industries in many provinces have maintained rapid growth, and new productivity engines are strong.
The major economic provinces play the role of "ballast stone"
Data show that in the first quarter, the major economic provinces still played the role of "ballast stone", and the "leading beam" pattern was stable. In terms of total economic volume, in the first quarter, Guangdong and Jiangsu led the country with a GDP of over 3 trillion yuan, while Shandong and Zhejiang both had a GDP of over 2 trillion yuan, followed by Sichuan and Henan, which both exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan.
From the perspective of economic growth, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the national GDP will grow by 5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026. The “first quarter reports” from various places show that the GDP growth rate in the first quarter of 15 provinces is not less than 5%. In particular, eight of the top 10 economic provinces with GDP growth exceeded 5% in the first quarter. Among them, Shandong and Zhejiang both had GDP growth rates of 6% in the first quarter, ranking second in the country.
It is worth mentioning that as China’s largest province in terms of population and economy, Guangdong’s GDP growth rate in the first quarter was 4.6%, slightly lower than the national growth rate. However, data from the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics shows that this growth rate has increased by 0.5 percentage points and 0.7 percentage points respectively compared with the same period in 2025 and the full-year growth rate in 2025. The growth rates of industry, investment, and foreign trade have all rebounded significantly, and the "basic" of economic growth has been consolidated.
The western provinces are also making efforts, and many "economic dark horses" have performed well. Among them, Tibet leads the country with a GDP growth rate of 6.1%, while Gansu and Qinghai have growth rates of 5.9% and 5.4% respectively higher than the national average.
"In general, the economies of various provinces continued to rebound and improve in the first quarter. The economic growth of most major economic provinces outperformed the country in the first quarter, stabilizing the economic market. Only Guangdong's economic growth in the first quarter was lower than that of the country, but the growth rate difference with the country narrowed to 0.4 percentage points, the smallest gap in the same period in the past five years. Late-developing provinces also continue to increase their development resilience." Luo Zhiheng, chief economist of Guangdong Securities, told a reporter from the Economic Information Daily.
New quality productivity has become a new engine to drive growth
Compared with volume and growth rate, the driving force of economic growth is also worthy of attention. In the first quarter, my country's high-tech industry investment increased by 7.4% year-on-year, 5.7 percentage points higher than the national fixed asset investment (excluding rural households). “First quarter reports” from many places show that new productivity has become a new engine driving economic growth.
Among them, as the artificial intelligence boom drives the development of related industrial chains, many provinces have benefited from it. Reporters' statistics found that at least 13 provinces mentioned integrated circuit development report cards in their "first quarter reports", and the overall growth trend is gratifying.
For example, thanks to favorable factors such as the explosion of AI computing power, Chongqing’s power semiconductor and integrated circuit, AI and robot industry clusters grew by 50.9% and 58.2% respectively; Guangdong’s artificial intelligence wave has driven the rapid growth of the electronics industry, with computers, communications and other electronics industries growing rapidly. The sub-equipment manufacturing industry grew by 13.4%, maintaining double-digit growth, driving the added value of industries above designated size in Guangdong Province to grow by 3.6 percentage points, contributing more than 60%; the added value of industries above designated size in Beijing's integrated circuit manufacturing industry increased by 61.5%; the output of integrated circuits in Shanxi Province increased by 32.3 times.
“The global demand for artificial intelligence equipment has exploded this year, driving high growth in the export of electromechanical products such as integrated circuits, promoting the profit expansion of the electronics and communications manufacturing industry, and increasing the willingness of enterprises to expand investment and reproduction.” Luo Zhiheng said.
At the same time, the new energy vehicle industry has injected strong impetus into the economic growth of many provinces. For example, Beijing's new energy vehicle production increased by 44% in the first quarter, and Shanghai's new energy vehicle industry output value increased by 34.9%. In addition, while Liaoning's automobile production fell by 11.2% in the first quarter, new energy vehicle production increased by 24.0%, becoming an important starting point for the kinetic energy switching of the old industrial base.
In the view of Yuan Haixia, president of China Chengxin International Research Institute, the explosion of new productivity at multiple points cannot be separated from the joint drive of policy, demand and industrial upgrading. From a domestic perspective, our country is in an important period of consumption upgrading, accelerating the process of technological iteration and commercialization in new productivity fields such as artificial intelligence and humanoid robots. From the perspective of the international market, the continued release of green transformation and high-end demand has directly promoted enterprises in new energy, automobiles, high-end equipment and other fields to expand production capacity and increase investment in technology research and development.
Foreign trade gained momentum
At the same time, foreign trade gained momentum in many places in the first quarter, and high-level opening up continued to release development momentum.
In the first quarter, Guangdong’s foreign trade scale reached a new high, leading the country with a growth rate of 19.4%. Among them, exports of integrated circuits, lithium batteries, and ships increased by 63.4%, 65.5%, and 70.7% respectively; in the first quarter, Zhejiang’s export scale reached one trillion yuan for the first time in history during the same period. Among them, exports of electric vehicles and lithium batteries increased by 90.7% and 124.2% respectively year-on-year.
“The transformation and upgrading of the domestic manufacturing industry has made progress, and its role in promoting the export of new energy vehicles and high-tech products continues to show.” said Feng Lin, executive director of the Research and Development Department of Dongfang Jincheng.
In addition, as a new highland for my country’s institutional opening up, the institutional dividends of the Hainan Free Trade Port are accelerating. In the first quarter, Hainan’s total import and export of goods was 84.530 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38.5%. As a key logistics hub for the opening of Hainan Free Trade Port, in the first quarter, the container throughput of Hainan Yangpu Port reached a total of 983,700 TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 94.37%.
Experts said that the continued advancement of institutional innovations such as the Hainan Free Trade Port's customs closure operation has enabled foreign trade companies to receive increasing policy support and become more confident in expanding markets, stabilizing orders, and increasing efficiency. (Reporters Ye Jian Wang Zixu)
