The economic growth rate of Liaoning in China’s struggling north-east sank below zero in the first quarter, according to the local statistics bureau, making it the first province to register negative growth in seven years thanks to a severe downturn in China’s energy and heavy industry sectors.

据地方统计局消息，由于中国的能源和重工业行业严重衰退，辽宁省一季度经济增速跌至零下，成为7年来首个出现负增长的省份。辽宁省位于中国处境艰难的东北地区。

China’s national growth clocked in at an annual rate of 6.7 per cent in the first quarter, but that masks sharp discrepancies between provinces reliant on heavy industry, mining or oil and the southern and eastern regions with more diversified economies.

中国一季度全国经济增速达到6.7%，但这掩盖了那些依赖重工业、采矿或石油的省份，与经济较为多样化的华南、华东地区省份之间的巨大差异。

Liaoning, one of two provinces yet to report gross domestic product figures for the first quarter, was expected to perform poorly. The downturn in coal and oil prices has hit hard in the north-east, formerly known as Manchuria. The largest economy among the three northeastern provinces, Liaoning boasts the manufacturing and high-tech city of Dalian but is also home to large and struggling steel mills.

目前仍有两个省份未公布一季度国内生产总值(GDP)数据，其中一个就是辽宁省，预计其表现不佳。煤炭和石油价格的低迷对东北地区造成重创。作为东三省最大经济体，辽宁以其制造业和高科技城市大连而自豪，但辽宁也是众多陷入困境的大型钢厂的大本营。

Chinese newspaper 21st Century Business Herald reported this week that the province would book a 1.3 per cent contraction in real GDP for the quarter, a figure subsequently integrated into figures published by data provider CEIC. A Liaoning statistics bureau official confirmed that the figure was “basically correct” when contacted by the Financial Times but said the data had not yet been published, pending approval from senior provincial officials.

根据《21世纪经济报道》(21st Century Business Herald)本周报道，辽宁省一季度实际GDP预计将收缩1.3%，随后数据提供商CEIC发布的综合数据中也采用了这一数字。辽宁统计局一名官员向英国《金融时报》证实，这一数字“基本正确”，但表示该数据尚未公布，还有待省内高层官员批准。

Liaoning’s performance is politically significant because Chinese premier Li Keqiang is affiliated with an economic revival in the rust belt north-east after a severe downturn following reforms to state-owned heavy industry in the late 1990s. His policy, which included state-funded housing projects designed to replace decrepit neighbourhoods of SOE worker housing, fuelled a construction boom but did not fundamentally alter the region’s reliance on traditional industries.

辽宁省的经济表现之所以具有重大政治意义，是因为中国总理李克强与东北“锈带”地区的经济复苏有关。上世纪90年代末，东北地区在国有重工业改革后经历了严重衰退。李克强的政策包括推出国家资助的住房项目，以取代国企员工居住的老旧居民区，他的政策推动了建筑业发展，但并没有从根本上改变该地区对传统产业的依赖。