Baotou's economy has continuously grown stronger over the past decade. From 2013 to 2021, the city's GDP grew by an average of 6.8 percent annually, and its total economic output in 2021 exceeded 300 billion yuan ($41.78 billion), nearly double that of 2012.

Over the past 10 years, the development quality and per capita living standard of Baotou have improved significantly year by year. In 2021, its per capita GDP reached 121,331 yuan, an increase of 58,006 yuan over 2012, and it saw an average annual growth in per capita GDP of 6.5 percent from 2013 to 2021.

In addition, in 2021, the per capita disposable income of urban permanent residents in the city reached 54,448 yuan, 1.6 times higher than that in 2012, while the permanent resident population in rural pastoral areas was 22,791, two times that of 2012.

Over the past decade, Baotou's industrial structure has also become more high-end, intelligent and green.

Baogang Group took the lead in formulating new standards for rare earth steel, obtaining 14 authorized rare earth steel invention patents and five rare earth steel utility model patents, and the brand value of rare earth steel reached 20.84 billion yuan.