On April 19, 2022, the first financial China high frequency economic activity index (yhei) was 0.80, down 0.12 from a week ago, reaching the lowest value since 2020 except during the Spring Festival. In the week ending April 19, the "coastal coal freight rate index" decreased by 0.29 to below the base point, and other positive indicators also decreased to varying degrees.
Steel prices picked up this week. The price of steel billets in Tangshan rose by 1.27% in the week ending April 19 and 1.48% in the past month, down 3.43% from the same period last year. Cement and coal prices continued to decline. The cement price index fell by 0.22% in the week ended April 19 and 0.71% in the past month, up 11.31% from the same period last year. The price of thermal coal decreased by 0.27% in the past month and increased by 25.38% compared with the same period last year.
As of the week of April 19, the net withdrawal of funds from the central bank through the open market was 10 billion yuan. The inter-bank overnight interest rate fell 48 basis points in the week ended April 19 and 70 basis points in the past month, down 81 basis points from the same period last year. The seven day repo rate fell 15 basis points in the past week and 28 basis points in the past month, down 40 basis points from the same period last year.
On April 19, the National Bureau of statistics released data that China's GDP in the first quarter was 270178 billion yuan, an increase of 4.8% year-on-year, 0.8 percentage points higher than that in the previous quarter; Seasonally adjusted, it increased by 1.3% month on month, 0.2 percentage points slower than that in the fourth quarter of last year.
By industry, in the first quarter, the GDP of the primary and tertiary industries increased by 6.0% and 4.0% respectively year-on-year, 0.4 and 0.6 percentage points slower than that of the previous quarter; The secondary industry grew by 5.8% year-on-year, 3.3 percentage points faster than that of the previous quarter, which is the main driving force for the year-on-year growth of GDP in the first quarter. From the monthly data, the growth of the secondary industry is also weakening. From January to March, the added value of industries above designated size increased by 6.5% year-on-year, 1.0 percentage points slower than that from January to February. Among them, the slowdown of GDP growth in manufacturing and the production and supply of electricity, gas and water is related to factors such as the rise of raw material prices and the spread of the epidemic to a certain extent.
In terms of consumption, the total retail sales of social consumer goods in the first quarter was 108659 billion yuan, an actual year-on-year increase of 1.3%. Among them, the total retail sales of social consumer goods in March was 3423.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.53%, 10.23 percentage points slower than the year-on-year growth from January to February. According to the consumption type, affected by the epidemic, the revenue of commodity retail and catering decreased by 2.11% and 16.38% year-on-year in March, slower than the year-on-year growth from January to February, which had a certain impact on the growth rate of social consumer goods retail and GDP in the first quarter.
In terms of investment, the national fixed asset investment in the first quarter was 104872 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.3%. Although the cumulative year-on-year growth rate from January to March slowed down by 2.9 percentage points compared with that from January to February, the growth rate remained at a rapid level, nearly two-thirds higher than the average growth rate in 2019. Among them, from January to March, the year-on-year growth rates of primary, secondary and tertiary industries reached 6.8%, 16.1% and 6.4% respectively, which played a supporting role in the economy in the first quarter.
In terms of export, according to the data of the General Administration of customs, the export amount in the first quarter was US $820921 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.78%, 7.15 percentage points slower than that in the previous quarter.
