Factbox: Tax data reflects China's high-quality development in 2023

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- An array of tax data on innovation, digital economy, foreign investment and consumption reflected China's accelerated high-quality development last year, an official said Thursday.

Rao Lixin, deputy head of the State Taxation Administration, cited the following facts and figures at a press conference:

-- During the first three quarters of 2023, businesses applied for tax deductions for research and development costs totaling 1.85 trillion yuan (about 260 billion U.S. dollars), up 13.6 percent from a year ago. Of the total, nearly 60 percent were claimed by the manufacturing sector.

-- The revenue of high-tech industries climbed 9.8 percent year on year in 2023, indicating rapid innovation development.

-- The equipment manufacturing sector registered a 6.4 percent income increase last year and accounted for a larger 44.8 percent in the overall manufacturing sector. Sales related to electric passenger vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and solar batteries jumped 22.4 percent.

-- The digital economy's core industries posted an 8.7 percent revenue increase, up 2.1 percentage points from 2022 and suggesting deepened integration of digital technologies and the real economy.

-- The trade volume among provincial-level regions grew 5.9 percent in 2023 to make up 42.7 percent of the total domestic trade, pointing to a more smooth domestic economic activity in a unified national market.

-- Businesses in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River and the Pearl River deltas, which are considered three major economic powerhouses, registered a 5.4 percent increase in combined revenue, which accounted for 54.1 percent of the country's total.

-- The proportion of energy-intensive manufacturing in the entire manufacturing industry decreased by 1.5 percentage points compared with 2022 to 30.7 percent, which reflected the steady green transformation of industries.

-- Foreign investments that enjoy the deferral of dividend withholding tax amounted to 141.2 billion yuan, up 0.8 percent year on year. The figure has reached 660.3 billion yuan since the deferral started in 2018.

-- Merchandise and service consumption expanded 11.4 percent and 9 percent year on year as the consumption potential continued to be unleashed.

-- The country's social insurance premium income stood at 8.2 trillion yuan under the world's largest social security net, which serves more than 1.3 billion people.