Recently, Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Statistics released an overview of the province’s economic performance for the first two months of 2025. From January to February, Jiangsu maintained steady growth in industrial production, witnessed a surge in consumer market vitality, and continued to optimize its investment structure, achieving a stable opening for this year’s economic growth.

Steady growth reflected the resilience of industries. From January to February, industrial production in Jiangsu above the designated size sustained its growth momentum from the fourth quarter of the previous year, with value-added output rising by 8.1% year-on-year. Among 40 major industrial sectors, 31 sectors posted positive growth, accounting for 77.5% of the total. Among the top ten key industries with significant contributions, 90% maintained growth, collectively driving 73% of the overall industrial value-added growth. Export delivery value for industries above the designated size grew by 8.6%, outpacing total sales growth and domestic sales growth by 4.1 and 4.9 percentage points respectively, contributing 32.4% to total sales value growth and driving its growth rate up by 1.5 percentage points. Of 30 manufacturing export sectors, 21 saw export growth (70% coverage). For important industries, boosted by exports of new energy vehicles, construction machinery, ships and containers, automobiles, railway and vessels, general equipment, metal products, and specialized equipment sectors posted double-digit growth in export delivery value.

New quality productive forces gained momentum. Driven by technological and industrial innovation, accelerated digital and intelligent transformation for upgrading manufacturing continued to unleash new growth drivers. Advanced manufacturing sectors, such as high-tech manufacturing and digital product manufacturing, led the expansion. From January to February, value-added output in high-tech manufacturing and digital product manufacturing rose by 11.8% and 11.1%, respectively. Electronics and telecommunication equipment manufacturing surged 16%, fueled by AI computing demand, while core products such as discrete semiconductor devices and integrated circuits saw output increases exceeding 9%.

Consumer market sustained recovery. Jiangsu’s total retail sales of consumer goods reached RMB 811.63 billion in the first two months, up by 5.1% year-on-year, accelerating by 0.5 percentage points compared to 2024. Trade-in policies drove robust growth in key categories: retail sales above the designated size of new energy vehicles, home appliances, audiovisual equipment, office supplies, furniture, and telecommunication devices rose by 20.4%, 22.6%, 68.3%, 10.2%, and 18.5%, respectively. The transformation and upgrading of consumption has been steadily advanced. Retail sales above the designated size of cosmetics, sports and entertainment goods, and gold, silver, and jewelry also grew steadily by 12.5%, 35.5%, and 5.8%.

Jiangsu prioritized expanding effective investment, leveraging government investment to amplify growth, driving a fast growth in infrastructure investment, which jumped by 15.2%, 1.9 percentage points higher than 2024 and exceeding overall investment growth by 15.9 percentage points. Large-scale projects (over RMB 1 billion) saw steady progress: 2,870 such projects were underway, up by 141 or 5.2% year-on-year, with investment rising 6.7% in value terms.