CHONGQING, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The economy of southwest China's Chongqing municipality expanded by 9.3 percent year on year in 2017, ending a 15-year streak of double-digit growth, municipal statistics bureau announced Wednesday.
Despite the slowdown, Chongqing outpaced the 6.9 percent national GDP growth last year. The municipality boasted the country's fastest economic growth from 2014 to 2016.
Yi Xiaoguang, director of the Chongqing Institute of Comprehensive Economic Research, attributed the slowdown to slackening growth in the city's pillar industries of auto and equipment manufacturing and the downturn of the energy industry.
The added value of the auto and equipment manufacturing industries in 2017 slowed compared with previous years. In addition, the added value of the mining industry dropped 17.3 percent year on year.
Emerging industries, however, performed well.
The added value of Chongqing's high-tech industries expanded by nearly 25 percent from a year ago. The output of products from strategic emerging industries, including new energy vehicles, rail vehicles, lithium batteries and smart phones, rocketed.
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