The contribution of high-value-added industries such as biotechnology to China’s total economic inputs fell in October mainly due to a drop in capital and labor investments, a Caixin index showed Wednesday.
Caixin BBD New Economy Index (NEI) entered in 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 have ravaged the world’s second largest economy, impacting both manufacturing and service 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 decrease in the subindex for capital inputs. The sub-index, which has a weight of 35%, fell by 4.4 points in the month to 32.8 in October.
The sub-index for labor inputs also decreased, losing 1.9 points to 24 in October. The measure, with the greatest weight of 40%, measures the income of employees and the number of positions in the industries of the new economy.
The technology input subindex, meanwhile, posted a gain of 2.1 points in the month to 29.8 in October. The measurement has a weight of 25% 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; experience sustainable and rapid growth; and is strategically encouraged by the government.
Of the 10 industries tracked, the new information technology industry remained the largest contributor in October, accounting for 7.7 points of the NEI reading, although its share decreased from 8.3 points the previous month . The contribution of the new energy industry increased sharply by 4.2 points, mainly caused by an increase 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 by online career and recruitment websites.
The NEI monthly 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 ([email protected]) and editor Jonathan Breen ([email protected])
Read more about Caixin economic indices.
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