(Yicai Global) July 24 -- The gross domestic product growth of China’s major provincial economic powerhouses -- Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shandong -- was more than 6 percent in the first half of this year, according to data published by their statistics bureaus.

Chinese provinces have been releasing their economic data for the six months ended June 30. Guangdong province in the south had a gross GDP of CNY6.29 trillion (USD874.3 million), a gain of 5 percent from a year earlier, and remained the country’s largest province by economic size.

Jiangsu ranked second with a GDP of CNY6.05 trillion, up 6.2 percent. Shandong logged the same GDP growth as Jiangsu, and Zhejiang in the east of the country posted a 6.8 percent jump in GDP.

Henan and Sichuan were among the top six provinces with CNY3.13 trillion and CNY2.79 trillion in GDP, respectively, gaining 3.8 percent and 5.5 percent, from a year earlier.

More than 70 percent of industries in Jiangsu and Shandong grew in the first half, and the two provinces’ industrial added value soared by 8.3 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively. Retail sales in all provinces except Henan climbed faster than in the first quarter, with Jiangsu posting a 10 percent increase.

The growth of fixed investment in Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang was higher than the national average of 3.8 percent, and investment in infrastructure and the manufacturing sector was strong in these provinces.

The government should hike public investment and effective investment that it can dominate such as new infrastructure projects, according to Jia Kang, founding director of the China Academy of New Supply-Side Economics and former head of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences.

China’s GDP was CNY59.3 trillion in the first half, up 5.5 percent from a year ago, with the leading six economic provinces contributing 45 percent of the total, per the National Bureau of Statistics.

Editor: Peter Thomas