On March 23, an employee works on the assembly line at Dongfeng Motor Corporation in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, a manufacturing hub for the country's automobiles and auto components. Photo: cnsphoto

The unexpected coronavirus outbreak brought the economy of Central China's Hubei Province to an almost standstill amid months of strict lockdown, but that didn't change the long-term prospects of the province's economy which is now seeing better-than-expected recovery.

During the first eight months of 2020, the province's major macro-economic indexes such as foreign trade, industrial output as well as enterprises' sales revenue all registered positive growth, official data showed on Tuesday.

From January to August, the province's import and exports volume reached 246.17 billion yuan ($36.3 billion), up 2.6 percent year-on-year, customs data from Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, showed. In August alone, the province's foreign trade volume reached a single month high of 40.51 billion yuan in 2020.

As companies and factories accelerated work resumption after the epidemic was brought under control in the province, its industrial added value increased 2 percent year-on-year in June, maintaining positive growth for the second straight month.

Data showed that domestic electrical appliance manufacturing giant Midea manufactured 1.12 million sets of air conditioners in its Wuhan facility in June, an increase of more than 70 percent year-on-year.

Thanks to the central government's efforts to boost sales of the province's agricultural and industrial products to help the province walk out of the COVID-19 fallout quickly, companies in Hubei reported positive growth in their sales revenue in the second quarter of this year.

Wuhan-based Dongfeng Honda sold more than 440,000 automobiles in the first eight months. In August alone, the company's car sales surged 19.8 percent to 77,493, setting a new monthly record high.

In addition, the number of newly registered market entities in Hubei stood at 234,300 between May and July, doubling the amount registered in the first four months of the year. Not only the number, but also the brand effect and market appeal of Hubei's companies are improving. In the first half of this year, the number of patents granted in the province totaled 49,047, surging 40.82 percent year-on-year.

In the future, Hubei Province will continue to act as a key location in the country's national development strategies such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.