Stock rally boosted wealthy provinces' GDP in Q2

Guangdong, Beijing and Shanghai received boosts from their respective financial services sectors before the equities rally collapsed, contributing to improved GDP during the second quarter, Bloomberg reported, citing new economic data released by local governments. Financial sector output in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong surged 30%, 19.4% and 23%, respectively during the first six months of the year. Meanwhile the heavy industry-dependent Northeast continued to suffer from overcapacity, though the southwestern regions of Chongqing and Guizhou both posted growth of more than 10% as the former saw both industrial output and fixed-asset investment rise while the latter reported higher industrial output, transportation investment and credit.