Aerial photo taken on July 17, 2020 shows water gushing out from sluiceways of the Three Gorges reservoir on the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province. China's Yangtze River saw its second flood of the year on Friday morning in its upper reaches after days of torrential rainfall. The flood was caused by rising water levels in the river's trunk streams along the upper reaches, leading to the increasing inflow into the Three Gorges reservoir. (Photo by Zheng Jiayu/Xinhua)

Central China's Hubei Province, once hit hard by the coronavirus, has seen its economy recover to about 80 percent of last year's level in the first six months of 2020, with the growth decline narrowing in a variety of areas including exports, retail and industry, according to the latest data revealed by the Hubei Provincial Bureau of Statistics.

Hubei's GDP slumped 19.3 percent to 1.75 trillion yuan ($251 billion) in the first half of this year, compared with a 39.2 percent decline in the first quarter. Its GDP value is now about 80 percent of the same period last year, the data showed.

The province has seen industrial production accelerate. In the first half of this year, the industrial added value of major enterprises in Hubei slumped by 20.8 percent year-on-year, largely narrowing from a 45.8 percent decline in the first quarter. 

The exports situation has also improved in Hubei as the province's economy turned around. In the first six months, exports slumped 7.6 percent on a yearly basis in Hubei, compared with a 38.1 percent slump in the first quarter, the data showed. 

252,200 people have found new jobs in urban areas of Hubei, down 52.2 percent on a yearly basis but largely improved from a 75.2 percent slump in the first quarter. The resident income level also recovered from the first-quarter. 

The economic rebound of Hubei, once the most severely infected region in China, is a reflection of the continuous recovery of the domestic economy since the epidemic was effectively controlled. In the second quarter, China's GDP achieved positive growth of 3.2 percent, rebounding from a 6.8 percent decline in the first quarter.