Shanghai's GDP grew 5.1 percent year-on-year to top 2.6 trillion yuan ($360 billion) in the first half of this year, the municipal statistics bureau announced on Friday.

The third industry showed a robust 5.4 percent year-on-year increase to see its added value approaching 2.1 trillion yuan ($29.29 billion) in the first six months of the year. The added value of the information transmission, software and information technology industry spiked 14.6 percent in the monitored period while that for the finance industry came in at 8.8 percent. As a result, these two industries contributed over 60 percent of Shanghai's half-year GDP.

Driven by supportive macroeconomic policies and ongoing industrial upgrading, the added value of Shanghai-based industries grew by 5 percent in the first six months of the year. The output of computer, telecommunication and other electronic equipment companies surged 21.7 percent year-on-year. The annual growth rate for railway, ships, aviation and other transportation manufacturing companies reached 18.1 percent. Automobile manufacturing also jumped 10.2 percent.

Technology innovation has become a major impetus of the city's GDP growth. The output of the three pioneering industries, including artificial intelligence, integrated circuit and biomedicine, increased 9.1 percent year-on-year in the first six months, while that for high-technology manufacturing rose 16 percent. The output of lithium batteries for energy storage and carbon fibers grew by 37.6 times and 3.5 times respectively.

Thanks to the thriving AI industry and the soaring demand for high performance chips, sales revenue of software and information technology service providers rose 27.1 percent from a year earlier. Income generated by consulting services related to AI computing grew by 1.3 times on a yearly basis.

Shanghai's half-year growth rate for social retail sales came in at 1.7 percent, 2.8 percentage points higher than the first quarter data.

A total of 30 new regional headquarters of multinational companies and another 19 foreign companies' research and development centers settled in Shanghai in the first six months. Meanwhile, the city received 4.1 million inbound tourists during the first half of the year, up 37.6 percent from a year earlier.

Shanghai's total industrial investment in the first half of the year expanded by 19.8 percent on a yearly basis, among which that for electronic products spiked 43 percent. The city's infrastructure investment also increased 17.9 percent year-on-year.

The private economy showed upward momentum. Total industrial output generated by private enterprises with a minimum annual sales revenue of 20 million yuan ($2.79 million) each grew by 8.8 percent, which was 3.2 percentage points higher than the city's average. The import and export value reported by private enterprises jumped 23.6 percent year-on-year, overtaking the city's average by 21.2 percentage points.