China’s economy expanded by 4.7% year-on-year in H1 2026, but provincial performance reveals a much more varied growth landscape.

The fastest-growing provinces form a broad east-west corridor across central China: Tibet led at 6.3%, while major eastern economies Zhejiang (5.7%; USD 698 billion), Shandong (5.6%; USD 775 billion) and Shanghai (5.6%; USD 406 billion) also significantly outpaced the national average. Anhui (5.6%; USD 399 billion), Beijing (5.4%; USD 384 billion) and Jiangsu (5.2%; USD 1.03 trillion) add substantial economic weight to this above-average growth belt.

At the other end of the spectrum, growth remained subdued across parts of the northeast and south, with Jilin at 2.4%, Liaoning at 2.5% and Hainan at 2.0%. Perhaps most significant is Guangdong: China’s largest provincial economy generated approximately USD 1.05 trillion in H1 but grew by 4.5%, slightly below the national rate.

Overall, the latest data point to an increasingly differentiated provincial economy, with growth leadership extending across western, central and advanced eastern manufacturing regions rather than concentrating in a single part of the country.