The contribution of high value-added industries such as biomedicine to China’s total economic inputs dipped in October as labor, capital and technology inputs all declined, a Caixin index showed Thursday.
The Caixin BBD New Economy Index (NEI) came in at 31 last month, down 0.9 points from September, indicating that new economy industries accounted for 31% of China’s overall economic input activities. The reading marks the first drop in four months.
The NEI uses big data to track the size of China’s nascent industries. It measures labor, capital and technology inputs in 10 emerging industries relative to those used in all industries.
The October drop was mainly attributed to a decline in the subindex for capital inputs. The gauge, which has a 35% weighting, came in at 43.5, down 1.6 points month-on-month.
Meanwhile, the technology input subindex, which accounts for 25% of the NEI, dropped 1 point to 26.9. The gauge measures the number of research personnel recruited by the tracked industries, the number of inventions they have created and the number of patents they have obtained.
The subindex for labor inputs, which has a weighting of 40%, fell 0.3 points to 22.6. The subindex tracks employee income and the number of positions in new economy industries.
Launched in March 2016, the NEI defines a new economy industry as one that is technology- and human capital-intensive, but asset-light, experiences sustainable and rapid growth, and is deemed strategically important by the government.
The new information technology industry remained the largest contributor of the 10 tracked industries in October, accounting for 10.3 points of the NEI. The energy conservation and environmental protection industry experienced a significant decrease of 4.7 points to 2.5 points.
The average monthly entry-level salary in the 10 industries, based on data compiled from online career and recruitment websites, was 13,757 yuan ($1,917) in October, down 121 yuan from the previous month.
Monthly NEI reports are written by Caixin Data Technology Co. Ltd. and Chinese big-data research firm BBD, in collaboration with the National School of Development at Peking University.
Contact reporter Qing Na (qingna@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
Read more about Caixin’s economic indexes.
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