East China's Shandong province recorded GDP growth of 5.4 percent in the first half of the year, totaling 4.18 trillion yuan ($607.2 billion), according to a news conference convened by the Shandong provincial government on July 26.

In recent years, the province has been accelerating reforms and innovation to create a high-quality institutional and business environment to facilitate the transformation and upgrade of industry as well as to ensure environmental protection, according to Lu Wanming, deputy director of Shandong provincial bureau of statistics, speaking at the news conference.

In the past six months, the added value of the province's primary industry reached 233.97 billion yuan, up 3 percent, the secondary industry hit 1,829.7 billion yuan, up 2.6 percent, and the tertiary industry came in at 2,118.66 billion yuan, up 8.5 percent.

The services sector continued to be a strong anchor of Shandong's growth. In the first half of 2019, the added value of the province's services sector increased by 8.5 percent, accounting for 50.7 percent of Shandong's GDP.

Shandong's retail sales for the period totaled 1.68 trillion yuan, up 7.1 percent year-on -year, according to Shandong provincial bureau of statistics.

The province's foreign trade rose by 9.2 percent to 971.5 billion yuan. The half-year growth was 5.3 percentage points higher than the country's foreign trade growth over the period.

Shandong's high-tech manufacturing sectors -- including intelligent consumer devices, electronics and biological pharmaceuticals -- continued to grow rapidly. In particular, the added value of the intelligent consumer devices industry posted year-on-year growth of 22.9 percent.

The per capita disposable income of residents in Shandong was 16,159 yuan in the first half of the year, up 8 percent year-on-year.

Xinhua contributed to this story.