Explainer | Shanghai, home to Tesla, SMIC and GM and Volkswagen’s Chinese partner, is the most important city for China’s economy. Here’s why
- The mainland’s commercial and financial hub accounts for 3.8 per cent of national GDP and is home to the country’s biggest companies and busiest port
- The impact of Shanghai’s weeks-long lockdown on the national economy underscores the city’s crucial role
The weeks-long Shanghai lockdown under China’s zero-Covid policy, which forced most of the city’s 26 million people indoors and brought manufacturing to a virtual standstill, has taken a heavy toll on China’s commercial and financial hub. At the same time, it has underscored the city’s crucial economic position not only in China but globally.
Here’s a look at the city’s economic weight.
Biggest GDP contributor among Chinese cities
In 2021, Shanghai recorded a gross domestic product of 4.32 trillion yuan (US$637 billion), with a year-on-year growth of 8.1 per cent. With 1.7 per cent of the nation’s total population, Shanghai accounted for more than 3.8 per cent of GDP – the biggest proportion among all mainland cities.
The city’s GDP exceeds the GDP of three other top-tier commercial centres – Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Shanghai’s GDP also puts it in rare company globally, as one of only five cities to top 4 trillion yuan in GDP as of 2021. The other four are Beijing, which also achieved this level for the first time in 2021, Tokyo, New York and Los Angeles.
