SCIO press conference on China's economic performance in H1 2026

Chengdu.cn:

The service sector has been a key priority of our work this year. China has convened a national conference on the service sector and issued new guidelines aimed at expanding the capacity and improving the quality of the service sector, which made specific arrangements for promoting the high-quality development of the service sector. How did the service sector perform in the first half of the year? Thank you.

Mao Shengyong:

I would like to invite Ms. Wang to answer this question.

Wang Guanhua:

Thank you for your question. In the first half of the year, all relevant parties thoroughly implemented the guiding principles of the national conference on the service sector and introduced a number of supporting measures to promote the expansion and improve the quality of the service industry. As a result, the service sector has maintained steady growth, playing an important role in supporting industrial upgrading and meeting people's livelihood needs. There have been several notable characteristics.

First, the service sector's contribution to economic growth has increased. In the first half of the year, the added value of the service sector reached 41.4 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%, 0.5 percentage point faster than the overall economic growth. It accounted for 59.5% of GDP, making it the largest industry in the national economy. Moreover, the sector contributed 66.1% to economic growth, an increase of nearly 6 percentage points over the same period last year, making it the main driving force for economic growth.

Second, producer services sector has integrated and innovated. Professional services such as information technology, modern finance and modern logistics have played an important role in promoting industrial upgrading and transformation through deeper integration with advanced manufacturing. In the first six months, the added value in the information transmission, software and information technology services sector increased 10.7% year on year, while that of the leasing and business services sector rose 11.9%. Together, the two sectors contributed nearly a quarter of economic growth. Financial services have been strengthened to support the real economy, with the added value of the financial industry increasing by 6.7% and contributing more than 10% to economic growth. The transportation and logistics system operated efficiently, handling more than 550 million express parcels every day and moving over 150 million metric tons of goods across the country, effectively supporting the stable operation of industrial and supply chains.

Third, the consumer services sector has broadened its reach and improved its quality. Efforts have been stepped up to expand consumer services and cater to residents' diverse needs. The added value of wholesale and retail trade, as well as the accommodation and catering industries both expanded in the first half of the year. In the first five months, the operating revenue of enterprises above designated size in the sector of residential services, repair and other services increased by 5.7%. Various regions have been continuously enriching the integrated business formats of "culture, tourism, sports and commerce," and promoting the intensive rollout of offline performances and sporting events. In the first five months, the operating revenue of cultural and artistic enterprises and sports enterprises above designated size increased by 11.8% and 11.9%, respectively.

Fourth, emerging service industries have been steadily cultivated and expanded. In the first five months, the operating revenue of strategic emerging service enterprises above designated size increased by 6.1% year on year. New business formats such as online commerce, telemedicine and digital entertainment continued to expand, driving the transaction volume of e-commerce trading platforms to grow by 3.5% in the first half of the year. Meanwhile, to keep pace with the growing consumer demand for green travel and low-carbon consumption, the network of charging facilities has been increasingly improved, with its application scope continuously expanding. In the first half of the year, the transaction volume on major charging platforms surged by more than 30%.

Fifth, the service sector has steadily expanded its opening-up. In recent years, China has continued to promote deeper opening-up in key service sectors such as tourism, transportation, finance and telecommunications. From January to May, total trade in services grew 6% year on year, and the services trade deficit narrowed by about 20%. The competitiveness of high-tech, high-value-added service exports has continued to improve, with exports of knowledge-intensive services growing 12.2%. The service sector has also been China's largest recipient of foreign investment for many years and maintained strong growth momentum this year. In the first five months, utilized foreign investment in the service sector accounted for 72% of the national total, highlighting the appeal of the service sector's opening-up. Thank you.