(Yicai Global) Jan. 30 -- Chongqing, a municipality in the southwest of China, beat Guangzhou, one of the country’s four first-tier cities, to nab fourth place in terms of gross domestic product last year for the first time, as China puts more emphasis on development in the west of the country.

Chongqing’s economy swelled 2.6 percent in 2022 from the previous year to CNY2.91 trillion (USD430 billion), surging past Guangzhou whose GDP edged up 1 percent to CNY2.88 trillion, according to the latest data.

Chongqing covers a far greater area than Guangzhou, so it is not surprising that in the medium and long term the city’s economic aggregate will outstrip that of Guangzhou, Yi Xiaoguang, president of the Chongqing Institute of Comprehensive Economic Research, told Yicai Global.

However, Chongqing still needs to catch up with Guangzhou in terms of development level and per capital income, Yi said. It still does not have the output intensity, industrial structure and industrial system of Guangzhou.

The three other first-tier cities, all in the east of the country, nabbed the top three places. Shanghai had the biggest economy at CNY4.47 trillion (USD661 million) although this was a 0.2 percent dip year on year. Beijing followed with CNY4.16 trillion, a gain of 0.7 percent and Shenzhen was in third place with CNY3.24 trillion, a jump of 3.3 percent.

However, cities in the west are starting to close the gap with those in the east due to large-scale development and the advancement of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, that spans the length of the Yangtze River. Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan province, saw its economy grow 2.8 percent in 2022 year on year to CNY2.08 trillion, topping CNY2 trillion for the first time to rank seventh.

Seven cities in central and western China logged a GDP of more than CNY1 trillion last year. With the exception of Chongqing, which is a provincial-level city, the others are all capitals of their respective provinces. No provinces in these areas had two cities with a GDP of over CNY1 trillion.

Whereas in the east of the country, there are 17 cities with an economy of more than CNY1 trillion. Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces each have four CNY1 trillion-level cities, Zhejiang, Shandong and Fujian provinces have two each and then there are the provincial-level cities of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.

The data reflects the imbalance in China’s regional economic development and there is a clear gap between the central and western regions and the eastern part of the country, Yi said. However, as major regional policies come into play and the industrial foundation in the central and western regions is improved, the development of cities in these areas will cause the pattern to change.

Editor: Kim Taylor