Economic Situation in Sichuan in 2015
Press Conference of Economic Situation in Sichuan in 20152019-05-20

Given the complex and grim situation that the economic downward pressure continues to increase internationally and domestically in 2015, Sichuan Provincial CPC Committee and Provincial Government conscientiously implement various decisions and arrangements for stabilizing growth from the Party Central Committee and the State Council, firmly grasp the overall tone of seeking improvement in stability. Consistent focus has been made to develop anchoring force, scientifically and concertedly stabilize growth, carry out structural adjustment, promote reform, benefit the people, prevent risks, and deeply implement "Three Development Strategies". Proactive actions are taken to timely introduce a series of targeted policies and measures which promote the steady growth of the economy. The economy of Sichuan Province shows a stable and progressive development trend, in which the total economic volume records a new high, successfully realizing the objectives of the "12th Five-year Plan".

Examined and approved by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2015, Sichuan Province realized GDP of RMB3,010.31 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.9% in comparable price, and the growth speed was 1 percentage points higher than the national average level. Among them, the added value of the primary industry was RMB367.73 billion, an increase of 3.7%; that of the secondary industry was RMB1.42932 trillion, up 7.8%; that of the tertiary industry was RMB1.21326 trillion, up 9.4%.

I. The Agriculture Realized Stable Production

The grain and oil production kept stable throughout the year. Among them, the grain yield reached 34.428 million tons (an increase of 2%) and oil production 3.074 million tons (an increase of 2.2%). Live pig full grown and ready for slaughter and sales reached 72.365 million, a decrease of 2.8%; cattle, sheep and poultry for slaughter and sales continued to keep fast growth, where the cattle amounted to 2.955 million (up 6%), sheep 16.98 million (up 4%) and poultry 661.549 million (up 2.3%).

II. The Industry Kept Stable Growth

The added value of industries above designated size increased 7.9% over the previous year, an increase of 1.8 percentage points higher than the national average level.

In terms of types of registration, the added value of state-owned and state-controlled enterprises increased by 5.6% over the previous year; that of collective enterprises increased by 4.3%; that of joint-stock enterprises increased by 9.5%; and that of foreign-invested enterprises and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-invested enterprises increased by 0.7%.

In terms of light and heavy industries, the added value of light industry increased by 9.3% and that of heavy industry increased by 7.3%.

In terms of the sector, the added value in 36 out of 41 categories of sectors achieved growth. Among them, the added value of wine, beverage and purified tea making sectors increased by 11.4%, non-metallic mineral products sector increased by 20.1%, oil and gas extraction sector increased by 17.7%, automobile manufacturing by 10% and computer, communications and other electronic equipment manufacturing by 2.5%.

The export delivery value of industrial enterprises above designated size was RMB271.93 billion, down 15.8% over the previous year. The sales rate of industrial enterprises above designated size was 96.7%.

From January to November, the industrial enterprises above designated size realized the main business income of RMB3,396.39 billion (up 1.5% YoY), the total profits and taxes of RMB338.21 billion (down 3.4%) and total profits of RMB179.33 billion (down 7.7%).

III.   Investment Scale Expanded

The investment in fixed assets of the whole society throughout the year was RMB2,597.37 billion, up 10.2% over the previous year. Among them, fixed asset investment (excluding farmers) reached RMB2,496.56 billion, an increase of 10.2%.

From the industrial investment situation, the investment in the primary industry amounted to RMB84.01 billion, up 31.8% over the previous year; the investment in the secondary industry was RMB746.2 billion, up 3.5%, of which industrial investment was RMB736.1 billion, up 2.7%; the investment in the tertiary industry was RMB1,767.16 billion, an increase of 12.4%, of which that in transportation industry reached RMB315.2 billion, an up 7.4%.

In terms of capital in place, the investment in place throughout the year was RMB2.67679 trillion, up 5.1% over the previous year, of which the national budgetary funds increased by 28.2%, domestic loans decreased by 1.6%, the used foreign investment decreased by 40.2%, self-raised funds increased by 4.9%, other funds increased by 3.4%.

From the real estate market, the investment in real estate development in the whole year reached RMB481.3 billion, up 9.9% over the previous year. The commercial housing construction area was 389,814,000 square meters, up 6.8%; commercial housing floor space completed was 45,457,000 square meters, down 14.8%; the commercial housing sales area was 76,712,000 square meters, an increase of 7.4%.

IV. Consumption Kept Steady and Rapid Growth

Throughout the year, the total retail sales of consumer goods amounted to RMB1,387.77 billion, an increase of 12% over the previous year. Among them, the total retail sales of social consumer goods were RMB135.05 billion in December, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%, unchanged from last month.

From the location of business units, the retail sales of consumer goods in cities and towns reached RMB1,115.17 billion, up 11.7% over the previous year; the retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas reached RMB272.61 billion, up 13.2%, an increase of 1.5% faster than that of urban areas.

As for consumption patterns, in the whole year, the retail sales of goods reached RMB1,192.17 billion, up 11.9% over the previous year; catering income was RMB195.6 billion, up 12.3%. As for retail sales of goods, enterprises above designated size (unit) achieved retail sales of RMB632.92 billion, an increase of 8.9%. Among them, retail sales of grain and oil, food, beverage, alcoholic drinks and tobacco increased by 19.1%, those of clothing, shoes and hats, knitwear and textile increased by 12.3%, those of daily necessities increased by 19.4%, those of newspapers and magazines grew by 16.5%, those of household appliances and audio and video equipment increased by 10.9%, those of communications equipment increased by 28.5%, those of furniture increased by 20.3%, those of automobiles increased by 6.3%, and those of petroleum and its products dropped by 3.6%.

V.    Urban Employment Maintained General Instability  

The number of employed people in cities and towns was 1.0194 million, an increase of 57,400 over the previous year; the number of reemployed unemployed persons was 258,700, up 6,115 over the previous year; the number of employed persons with difficulties in employment was 85,300, an increase of 3,008; the urban registered unemployment rate was 4.12%, 0.03 percentage points lower than that in the previous year.

Overall, the province's economy in 2015 ran smoothly, where structural adjustment was advanced steadily, but the economic operation was also faced with some issues and difficulties such as overcapacity in some industries, increased production and management difficulties in some enterprises, and heavy income increase pressure for urban and rural residents. The economic downturn pressure was still large. The year of 2016 is not only the first and decisive year of Sichuan Province's "13th Five-year Plan" for building a comprehensive well-off and strong economic province, but also the crucial year of structural reform. According to various decisions and deployments by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, Sichuan Province will adhere to the overall keynote of seeking improvement in stability to focus on improving the quality and efficiency of economic development, make efforts to strengthen the supply-side structural reform, and maintain dedicated development and transform the development of anchoring force, and strive to maintain steady and rapid economic growth, so as to ensure a good start of the "13th Five-year Plan" to lay a solid foundation for building a comprehensive well-off society.
Major Economic Indicators of Sichuan Province in December 2015 and the Whole Year
Indicator December Increase on year-on-year basis From Jan. to Dec. Cumulative growth
(%) Accumulative Total (%)
I. Gross regional domestic product (RMB 100 million) 30,103.1 7.9
Added value of the primary industry 3,677.3 3.7
Added value of the secondary industry 14,293.2 7.8
Added value of the tertiary industry 12,132.6 9.4
II. Added value of industries above designated size 8.2 7.9
Light and heavy industries:
# Light industry 9.9 9.3
Heavy industry 7.3 7.3
Economic type:
#State-owned enterprise 3.4 2.7
Collectively-owned enterprise 4.0 4.3
Joint-equity cooperative enterprise 14.4 17.9
Joint-equity enterprise 9.5 9.5
Foreign-invested enterprise and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-invested enterprise 2.9 0.7
Enterprises of other economic types 6.1 6.9
#State-owned and state-holding enterprise 7.1 5.6
Value of export delivery (RMB100 million) 249.9 -26.1 2,719.3 -15.8
Major product output
Gasoline (Ten thousand tons) 22.1 27.4 217.4 11.6
Natural gas (100 million cubic meters) 27.4 11.8 266.2 5.5
Pig iron (ten thousand tons) 157.7 14.5 1,747.4 -8.3
Steel (ten thousand tons) 197.8 17.1 2,110.4 -5.1
Finished steel products (ten thousand tons) 251.0 -0.6 2,702.5 -3.8
NPK chemical fertilizers for agricultural use (ten thousand tons) 41.3 10.0 497.1 7.9
Beer (ten thousand kiloliters) 13.7 14.3 221.0 -3.0
White spirit (ten thousand kiloliters) 44.1 8.1 370.9 6.0
Cement (ten thousand tons) 1,284.8 -5.1 14,040.6 -3.3
Automobile 85,167 11.7 1,050,521 9.1
Complete electronic computer (ten thousand) 576.4 -33.0 6,342.7 -16.8
III. Total investment in fixed assets (RMB100 million) 25,973.7 10.2
Including: Investment in fixed asset (excluding farmer) 24,965.6 10.2
Investment in real estate development 4,813.0 9.9
By composition
Construction works 18,226.3 11.3
Installation works 1,885.6 20.5
Procurement of equipment and tools &appliances 3,054.8 12.5
Other costs 2,807.0 -3.8
By the industry:
Primary industry 840.1 31.8
Secondary industry 7,462.0 3.5
Including: Industry 7,361.0 2.7
Tertiary industry 17,671.6 12.4
Including: Transportation 3,152.0 7.4
Investment capital source (RMB100 million) 26,767.9 5.1
National budgetary funds 1,956.8 28.2
Domestic loans 2,447.0 -1.6
Bonds 42.8 -42.3
Foreign investment used 56.9 -40.2
Self-raised funds 17,699.0 4.9
Other sources of funding 4,565.5 3.4
IV. Total retail sales of consumer goods (RMB100 million) 1,350.5 12.3 13,877.7 12.0
By business location
Cities and towns 1,075.2 12.1 11,151.7 11.7
Rural areas 275.3 12.9 2,726.1 13.2
By consuming pattern
Catering income 187.6 13.1 1,956.0 12.3
Commodity retail 1,162.9 12.2 11,921.7 11.9
V. Total imports and exports (RMB100 million) 38.5 -36.1 515.9 -26.5
Exports 21.8 -39.8 333.5 -25.6
Imports 16.8 -30.4 182.4 -28.1
VI. Consumer prices of household 1.2 1.5
1. Food 2.3 2.9
2. Tobacco and articles 3.4 0.1
3. Garments 0.2 1.4
4. Household equipment supplies and maintenance services 0.4 0.4
5. Health care and personal articles 1.8 2.1
6. Transportation and Communications -0.1 -0.7
7. Entertainment, education and cultural goods and services 0.9 1.1
8. Residence 0.2 0.5
VII. Ex-factory price of industrial producers -4.0 -3.6
Means of production -5.3 -4.7
Mining -13.3 -9.7
Raw materials -4.0 -3.6
Processing -4.4 -4.3
Means of livelihood -0.1 -0.2
Food 0.3 0.2
Garments 8.5 3.5
Ordinary articles for daily use -2.4 -2.0
Durable consumer goods -4.1 -1.9
VIII. Purchase price of industrial producers -4.2 -3.3
Fuel and energy -3.8 -2.9
Ferrous metals -9.8 -9.0
Non-ferrous metals and electric wire -9.1 -5.0
Chemical raw materials -5.3 -5.3
IX. Per capita disposable income of all residents (RMB) 17,221 9.3
Per capita disposable income of urban residents 26,205 8.1
Per capita disposable income of rural residents 10,247 9.6

Note: 1. Gross regional domestic product, added value of industry above the designated size and the total amount of their breakdown items are calculated at current prices and the growth rate is calculated at comparable prices; other indicators are calculated at current prices unless otherwise specified.

2. Due to round-off, some data are subject to the situation where totals are not equal to the sum of sub-totals.
(From the Press Conference of Economic Situation in Sichuan in 2015)
Editor in charge: Liu Yi