Shenzhen Surpasses Guangzhou as South China’s Richest City

Soak it in, Shenzhen: we’re number three! 

Guangdong’s Statistics Bureau just released new numbers for 2016 and they rank the home of China’s first special economic zone (SEZ) as third richest city in the nation.

Shenzhen now joins Beijing and Shanghai in the exclusive club of cities with GDP over RMB2 trillion. Guangzhou, with RMB1.98 trillion, just barely missed the mark. 

The new figures reflect an accounting change that counts R&D as a fixed investment rather than an operating expense, according to South China Morning Post. 

That gave tech-forward Shenzhen the edge and a new annual growth rate of 9.1 percent. Though larger and more established, Guangzhou’s economy is focused on older industries like oil and vehicle production, Asia Times reports.

Of course, take all this with a grain of salt. Provincial statistics always add up to more than China’s total GDP, a magical gestalt that might be fixed when the National Bureau of Statistics takes over regional record keeping in 2019. 

READ MORE: Shenzhen Economy to Surpass Hong Kong by 2018

[Image via Wikicommons]