(Yicai Global) July 23 -- In the first half of this year, the  clip of Shanghai's gross domestic product growth rose 5.9 percent which  was 0.4 percentage point less than the nation's average.

Shanghai's GDP climbed to  CNY1.64 trillion (USD238.2 billion) during the six months, the  Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau released today. The nation's  average pace was 6.3 percent.

Shanghai's service sector  maintained rapid growth. The value added by the tertiary sector rose 9.1  percent to account for over 71 percent of the total GDP, which was 2  percentage points more that the previous year. Robust development in the  service fields of finance, information, business and scientific  research contributed to the expansion.

Shanghai's emerging  industries also performed well. The output of biomedicine increased by  7.6 percent, driven by foreign-funded enterprises. The field new energy  automobiles boosted its output 6.7 percent. Those of smart grid, cloud  computing and e-commerce businesses climbed more than 10 percent each.

The combined value of the  city's foreign investment contracts increased by 6.3 percent to USD22.9  billion. That of materialized deals rose nearly 14 percent to USD9.8  billion. Multinational corporations established 23 regional headquarters  in Shanghai to lift the total number to nearly 700. Eight new  foreign-funded research and development centers were formed to bring the  total to almost 450, taking the lead nationwide. 

Shanghai added 385,400 new  jobs during the six months, an increase of 2 percent over the same  period of last year. The disposable income per capita was CNY35,290  (USD5,129) in the first half, maintaining the highest position in the  country, while climbing 8.2 percent from the previous year. However,  rising prices eroded some of that growth, meaning that the real increase  was 6 percent.  

Editor: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine