The contribution of high value-added industries such as advanced materials to China’s total economic inputs expanded in January due chiefly to increased capital investment, a Caixin index showed last week.
The Mastercard Caixin BBD New Economy Index (NEI) came in at 29.5 last month, indicating that new economy industries accounted for 29.5% of China’s overall economic input activities. The reading was up from 28.1 in December.
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.
Growth in the index was mainly led by a rise in the subindex for capital inputs. The subindex, which has a 35% weighting, increased 4.9 points month-on-month to 39.4 in January.
The technology input subindex, which has a 25% weighting, increased by 0.2 points month-on-month to 26.5 in January. It gauges 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%, dropped by 0.9 points month-on-month to 22.6 in January. The subindex measures 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 strategically encouraged by the government.
Of the 10 tracked industries, the new information technology industry remained the largest contributor in January, making up 8.7 percentage points of the NEI reading, up from 7.3 percentage points the previous month. The contribution of the new energy industry ranked second, contributing 4.9 percentage points.
The average monthly entry-level salary in the 10 industries, based on data compiled from online career and recruitment websites, was 13,242 yuan ($2,082) in January, 117 yuan higher than 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 Zhang Yukun (yukunzhang@caixin.com) and editor Bertrand Teo (bertrandteo@caixin.com)
Read more about Caixin’s economic indexes.
Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
