Tourists are seen at a cafe in Bamei Village of Guangnan County, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Aug. 25, 2025. In recent years, Bamei Village has developed local tourism utilizing its karst landscapes and cultural resources. A tourist resort which helps boost the local service sector has taken shape. (Xinhua/Gao Yongwei)

Some major Chinese cities and provinces released their first-quarter economic data on Monday, showing a strong start to the year. A Chinese expert said that this trend underscores steady and solid economic development, supported by policy measures and consumption upgrades, with the growth of the services sector being a highlight.

Most importantly, the economic growth sends an important signal of a solid start to 2026, the first year of China's 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), as the country works toward its annual GDP growth target of 4.5-5 percent this year, the expert said.

Beijing held a press conference on its economic performance on Monday. In the first quarter, the city's GDP reached 1.29 trillion yuan, up 5.9 percent year-on-year at constant prices, marking a solid start to the economy, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.

Notably, the capital's tertiary sector, or services industry, saw stronger-than-average growth at 6.4 percent year-on-year compared with 5.2 percent at the national level. Next-generation information technology and the platform economy continued to drive development, while rising demand for computing power boosted faster growth in integrated circuit design services, according to the statistics bureau.

Also on Monday, Central China's Henan Province announced its first-quarter economic performance, showing a good start to the year. The province's GDP reached 1.59 trillion yuan, up 5.2 percent year-on-year at constant prices, according to the Henan Province Bureau of Statistics.

The value added of the tertiary industry reached 926.846 billion yuan, up 5.1 percent year-on-year. 

Notably, in January and February, the operating revenue of services enterprises above designated size in the province rose 8.5 percent year-on-year, 1.1 percentage points higher than the national average. About 80 percent of industries recorded growth, with eight out of 10 major services industry categories above designated size posting growth, according to the provincial bureau of statistics.

Central China's Hubei Province announced on Monday that its GDP grew 5.4 percent in the first quarter, with the value added of the services sector up 5.1 percent year-on-year.

Some other major cities and provinces also announced their first-quarter economic data, including Southwest China's Sichuan Province, which reported 5.5 percent year-on-year growth, and Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, which recorded 4.5 percent growth.

Many regions achieved a strong and solid start to their economic performances in the first quarter, which reflected continued improvement of the industry growth structure, with the services sector accelerating to become key forces supporting the economic recovery, Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the Forum 50 for Digital-Real Economies Integration, told the Global Times on Monday.

Hu said that from consumption-related services to producer services, areas such as tourism, transportation, and information services have been recovering well, as the tertiary sector becomes an important engine for stabilizing economic growth.

Policies have also been strengthened to promote the development of the services sector. In January, the General Office of the State Council issued a notice on the Work Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of New Growth Drivers for Service Consumption, emphasizing the strengthening of fiscal and financial support. It called for the coordinated use of existing funding channels to support the development of services consumption and foster new growth points in this sector, according to the notice.

Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Monday that based on the current data, overall economic performance across regions shows positive momentum, with the recovery trend continuing to strengthen.

Regions such as Chongqing and Henan have delivered relatively strong performances, reflecting the accelerating release of development momentum in central and western China, Li said, noting that these areas are increasingly becoming an important new source of support for overall economic growth. 

Amid ongoing industrial upgrading, Li said that the services sector, which was highlighted in first-quarter economic data, has seen its contribution to economic growth further increase, paving the way for a strong start to the 15th Five-Year Plan.