(Yicai Global) March 13 -- Last year's top 10 cities by gross domestic product were, in descending order, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Suzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Tianjin, data compiled by the country's National Bureau of Statistics' local branches nationwide show.

First-tier cities again secured the top four places. Shanghai posted CNY3.8 trillion (USD541 billion) in GDP last year driven by the new energy vehicle, electronic information, biomedical manufacturing and petrochemical sectors, up 6 percent from 2018 based on comparable prices, while Beijing reported over CNY3.5 trillion in GDP last year, up 6.1 percent from the previous year, based on the same metric.

Shenzhen and Guangzhou achieved CNY2.69 trillion and CNY2.36 trillion in GDP last year, respectively. Guangzhou, which jumped to third place in economic aggregate in 1989, was upstaged by Shenzhen for the first time and relegated to the fourth slot in 2016. The gap between the two cities has widened ever since. Guangzhou now lags far behind  Shenzhen in the number of its high-tech and listed firms and Fortune 500 companies, Peng Peng, executive president of the Guangdong Institutional Reform Research Association, said, noting Shenzhen is home to industry leaders such as Huawei Technologies and Tencent Holdings, but Guangzhou is not.

Fifth-ranked Chongqing posted CNY2.3 billion (USD327.2 million).

Wuhan, which has borne the brunt of the Covid-19 epidemic, reported CNY1.7 trillion in GDP last year and ranked seventh above Chengdu in Southwest China, but it is expected to leapfrog Wuhan this year because of the coronavirus.

Hangzhou and Tianjin took the ninth and 10th spots, with CNY1.5 trillion and CNY1.4 trillion in GDP, respectively. E-commerce, Internet of Things, software and information services in Hangzhou have been developing rapidly driven by industry leaders Alibaba Group Holding and NetEase, as well the leafy lakeside city's numerous startups.

Editor: Ben Armour