Dongguan’s economy maintained stable growth in the first five months of 2025, driven by strong industrial output, robust foreign trade, and a steadily improving consumer market. New economic drivers and high-tech sectors continued to gain traction, underscoring the city’s ongoing transition toward innovation-led development.
Industrial output
From January to May, the added value of large-scale industries grew by 5.5% year-on-year. Leading the charge were the electronic information sector (+9.2%), electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing (+9.5%), and chemicals (+12.2%).
Advanced and high-tech manufacturing rose by 7.8% and 9.2% respectively. High-tech product output maintained strong growth, especially in areas such as servers (+380.9%), integrated circuits (+85.9%), sensors (+80.8%), and computer (+42.6%), demonstrating Dongguan’s growing capacity in core tech industries.
Foreign trade
Dongguan recorded RMB 615.85 billion in total foreign trade from January to May, up 17.4% year-on-year. Exports totaled RMB 371.74 billion, rising 11.2%, while imports climbed to RMB 244.11 billion, up 28.5%. May alone saw a 10.7% rise in overall trade, signaling continued external demand and strong logistics capacity.
Consumption
Retail sales totaled RMB 186.28 billion, a 4.4% increase. Sales of green upgrade products soared, with furniture and telecom equipment both more than doubling. Online retail grew by 37.8%, while staple goods such as food and beverages also saw strong demand.
Investment
Fixed asset investment fell 16.7% overall, mainly due to a sharp decline in real estate. However, excluding property, the drop narrowed to 4.6%. Infrastructure investment rose 7.0%, and industrial investment now accounts for 54.4% of total investment, up 7.1 percentage points year-on-year.
Public finance and banking
Public budget revenue reached RMB 35.18 billion, up 3.1%. Household savings saw robust growth, with deposits climbing 11.4%, reflecting strong financial resilience.
CPI
Consumer prices fell 1.0% year-on-year, with seven of eight major categories declining. In May, the CPI dropped 1.2%, continuing the trend of low inflation.
