The contribution of high value-added industries such as biotechnology to China’s total economic inputs slipped in October due chiefly to a decrease in capital and labor investments, a Caixin index showed Wednesday.
The Caixin BBD New Economy Index (NEI) came in at 28.5 last month, indicating that the monitored new economy industries accounted for 28.5% of China’s overall economic input activities. The reading is down 1.8 points from 30.3 in September.
A new wave of Covid outbreaks and containment measures has disrupted the world’s second-largest economy, impacting both manufacturing and services activities.
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 contraction in last month’s NEI was mainly the result of a drop in the subindex for capital inputs. The subindex, which has a 35% weighting, fell 4.4 points month-on-month to 32.8 in October.
The subindex for labor inputs also dropped, losing 1.9 points to land at 24 in October. The gauge, with the largest weighting at 40%, measures employee income and the number of positions in the new economy industries.
The technology input subindex, meanwhile, posted gains of 2.1 points month-on-month to 29.8 in October. The gauge has a 25% weighting and measures the number of research personnel recruited by the tracked industries, the number of inventions created, and the number of patents obtained.
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 October, accounting for 7.7 points of the NEI reading, though its share fell from 8.3 points the previous month. The contribution of the new-energy industry rose sharply by 4.2 points, mainly caused by an uptick in the scale of new businesses.
The average monthly entry-level salary in the tracked industries was 14,218 yuan ($1,956) in October, 161 yuan higher than in September, according to data compiled from online career and recruitment websites.
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 Ziyu (ziyuzhang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
Read more about Caixin’s economic indexes.
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