Maoming's GDP saw a year-on-year decrease of 9.7 percent to 67.66 billion yuan ($9.56 billion) in the first quarter of this year due to the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, but the added value of its primary industry rose by 0.7 percent to 12.31 billion yuan.

The growth rate of the agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery industries in Maoming from January to March was 0.9 percent year-on-year, which was 0.9 percentage points higher than that of Guangdong province and 3.7 percentage points higher than that of the country.

The planting area of vegetables in Maoming in the past three months grew by 3.8 percent, while the vegetable output rose by 7.2 percent year-on-year. The fruit cultivation area increased by 1.6 percent and the yield of fruit saw a growth rate of 10.4 percent. A total of 60.56 million poultry came into the market in Maoming, a year-on-year increase of 37 percent.

The added value of industrial enterprises above designated size in Maoming in the first quarter of this year saw a decrease of 24.1 percent, 2.9 percentage points lower than that in the January and February. Industrial enterprises above designated size refer to those with an annual output value of more than 20 million yuan. 

From January to March, there were 210 general contracting and professional subcontracting construction enterprises with business licenses in Maoming, 19 more than the same period last year. Contracts worth a total of 106.55 billion yuan were signed, up 21.8 percent.

Investment in real estate in Maoming in the first quarter of this year grew by 28.4 percent, up 25.8 percentage points from that in the January and February.

Maoming's total retail sales of consumer goods from January to March amounted to 29.32 billion yuan, decreasing by 17.7 percent. The sales of traditional Chinese and Western medicine increased by 20.8 percent, and online sales rose by 16.4 percent, up 4.8 percentage points than that in January and February.

Between January and March, the total value of Maoming's imports and exports reached 2.72 billion yuan, a decrease of 31.2 percent. Its actual utilization of foreign capital was 73.16 million yuan, a 6.28 times growth.

Maoming had 288,900 market entities that have industrial and commercial registration by the end of March, a year-on-year increase of 12.1 percent. There were a total of 9,432 newly registered market entities in Maoming in the first quarter, including 1,980 new enterprises.