Hubei's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded5.6percent year on year to reach 2,625.922 billion yuan in the first half (H1) of 2023, according to data released by the Hubei Provincial?Statistics?Bureauand Hubei investigation team under the National Bureau of Statisticson July 19.

The growth saw 0.5 percentage points faster than the province’s performance in the first quarter and 0.1 percentage point faster than the national level.

In the first half of this year, Hubei has made great efforts to stabilize growth, employment and prices, showing a good momentum of stable recovery.

During the same period, the added value of the province’s primary, secondaryand tertiary sectors grew 4.1percent, 4.3percent and 6.7percent year on year to 176.662 billion yuan, 1,099.596 billion yuan, and 1,349.664 billion yuan, respectively.

Among the sectors, the total output of summer grain rose for four consecutive years, hitting the peak in nearly seven years. The added value of industries above designated size recorded a year-on-year increase of 4.7 percent. Many industries of service sector achieved double-digit growth, citing 49.5-percent, 84.5-percent and 39.1 percent growth for multimodal transport and transport agency, tourism and entertainment, and travel services, respectively.

In the first half of this year, 528,300 new jobs were created in urban areas of the province, fulfilling 75.5percentof its annual target. The province’s per capita disposable income stood at17,146 yuan, an increase of 6.3percent, and the ratio of per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents was 2.52, narrowing down by 0.04 from thesame period last year.