An aerial drone photo shows visitors enjoying the cityscape at The Stage, a new observation deck atop White Magnolia Plaza in Shanghai, east China, April 14, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's State Taxation Administration on Monday released value-added tax (VAT) invoice data for the first half of 2025, revealing steady growth in sales revenues among businesses nationwide.

Specifically, the data shows that manufacturing sales revenues grew 1.5 percentage points faster than the country's overall sales revenue growth during the January-June period, reinforcing the sector's role as a key driver of economic growth.

The development of new quality productive forces picked up pace during the period, with the sales revenues of high-tech sectors expanding 14.3 percent from last year.

Spurred by a national equipment-renewal program, machinery equipment purchases nationwide rose 11.1 percent year on year in the first half, sustaining the rapid growth seen in 2024. Consumer goods trade-ins also boosted demand for related products, driving a surge in retail sales.

Cross-provincial sales accounted for 40.7 percent of all national sales revenues in the first half, reflecting steady progress in the construction of a unified national market, the data shows.