New Economy Index Rebounds to Seven-Month High in June

The contribution of high value-added industries to China’s economy rebounded in June as capital inputs in these industries increased, a private index showed Tuesday.

The Mastercard Caixin BBD New Economy Index (NEI) rose to 30 in June from the previous month’s 28, indicating that new economy industries accounted for 30% of China’s overall economic input activities — the highest reading since November. The index measures labor, capital and technology inputs in 10 emerging industries relative to those of the whole economy.

The NEI consists of three subindexes — for technology, labor and capital. The subindex for capital inputs, which has a weighting of 35%, rose significantly to 34.2 from 29.1 in May, the highest reading since November.

The technology input subindex, which has a 25% weighting, rose to 29.1 in June, up from the previous month’s 28.3. The subindex for labor inputs, with a weighting of 40%, remained unchanged at 26.8.

Launched in April 2016, the NEI defines a new economy industry as one that is labor- and technology-intensive, but asset-light, experiences sustainable and rapid growth, and is in a strategic new sector supported by the government.

Among the 10 tracked industries, the new information technology industry remained the top contributor, making up 8.4 percentage points of the NEI’s reading.

The average monthly entry-level salary in new economy industries, based on data compiled from online career and recruitment websites, was 10,867 yuan ($1,586) in June, 91 yuan higher than the month before.

The monthly NEI reports are compiled by Caixin Insight Group — a financial data and analysis platform of Caixin Media, and Chinese big-data research firm BBD, in collaboration with the National School of Development at Peking University.

Contact reporter Liu Jiefei (jiefeiliu@caixin.com)

Read more about Caixin’s economic indexes.