HAIKOU /China/, July 22. /TASS/. Gross regional product (GRP) of Hainan, China's southern province, reached 314.46 billion yuan (about $46.58 billion at current exchange rate) in the first half of this year, up 1.6% year-on-year, according to data published by the Provincial Statistical Bureau.

Meanwhile, the agricultural sector grew 4.1% to 76.55 billion yuan (about $11.34 billion), the industrial sector decreased 0.8% in annual terms to 54.9 billion yuan ($8.13 billion) and the service sector rose 1.4% to 183 billion yuan ($27.1 billion).

Chief statistician Cheng Shaolin said that in the first quarter of this year Hainan's economy showed a trend of rapid growth, but in the second quarter the province's key economic indicators declined slightly due to the local outbreak of coronavirus in the country: in the second quarter Hainan's GRP fell 2.5% compared with the same period last year. As Cheng Shaolin pointed out, despite the decline in April and May, the province's economy showed growth again in June.

Hainan's economic growth rate in 2021 was 11.2%. The province's GRP reached 647.52 billion yuan ($101.77 billion at the exchange rate at the time of publication).