The number of newly established private companies in China grew by 7.1 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier, in what is being seen as a sign of resilience as the private sector bears the brunt of the fallout from the US-China trade war.
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Nearly 1.98 million private firms were registered in the first three months of the year – a growth pace higher than the average in the past three years, China’s top market regulator announced on Monday.
This reflects the “strong resilience” of China’s private economy, the State Administration for Market Regulation said, though it did not disclose numbers on closures and bankruptcy.
In total, there were more than 57 million registered private enterprises nationwide as of the end of March, accounting for 92.3 per cent of all enterprises, according to the administration.
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They reported an export and import value of 5.85 trillion yuan (US$803 billion) in the first quarter, up 5.8 per cent, year on year, Chinese customs data showed. They also accounted for 56.8 per cent of the total trade value in the period – an increase of 2.4 percentage points from a year earlier.
“Compared with state-owned enterprises, private and small businesses are more vulnerable to US ‘reciprocal tariffs’,” Zhang Xu, an analyst with Everbright Securities, wrote in a note in early April.
