Economy of China
China has an upper middle income,[27] developing, mixed, socialist market economy incorporating industrial policies and strategic five-year plans.[28] It is the world's second largest economy by nominal GDP, behind the United States, and the world's largest economy since 2016 when measured by purchasing power parity (PPP).[note 2] China accounted for 19% of the global economy in 2022 in PPP terms,[29] and around 18% in nominal terms in 2022.[29][30] The economy consists of public sector enterprises, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and mixed-ownership enterprises, as well as a large domestic private sector and openness to foreign businesses in their system. According to the annual data of major economic indicators released by the National Bureau of Statistics since 1952, China's GDP grew by an average of 6.17% per year in the 26 years from 1953 to 1978. China implemented economic reform in 1978, and from 1979 to 2023, the country's GDP growth rate grew by an average of 8.93% per year in the 45 years since its implementing economic reform. According to preliminary data released by the authorities, China's GDP in 2023 was CN￥126.06 trillion (US$ 17.89 trillion[31]) with a real increase of 5.2% than the last year. [32]
This article is about the economy of the People's Republic of China. For the economy of the Republic of China, see Economy of Taiwan. For other uses, see Economy of China (disambiguation).Currency
1,409,670,000 (2024)
- Agriculture: 7.1%
- Industry: 38.3%
- Services: 54.6%
- (2023)[3]
- Household consumption: 39.2%
- Government consumption: 16.5%
- Investment in fixed capital: 41.4%
- Investment in inventories: 0.7%
- Exports of goods and services: 18.9%
- Imports of goods and services: 14.3%
- Net exports: 2.1%
- (2023)[3]
1.69% (2024)[1]
25% on less than $6.85/day (2020)[4]
- Agriculture: 22.8%
- Industry: 29.1%
- Services: 48.1%
- (2023)[3]
US$ 1,305 (urban non-private sector)
US$ 747 (urban private sector) per month (2022)
US$ 1,002 (urban non-private sector)
US$ 578 (urban private sector) per month (2022)
55.7% of GDP (2023)[3]
42.1% of GDP (2023)[3]
43.46% of GDP (2024)[1]
10-Year Bond 2.831% (April 2023)[14]
- High-technology, mining and ore processing, iron, steel, aluminum, and other metals, renewable energy, coal; machine building; armaments; textiles and apparel; petroleum; cement; chemicals; fertilizer; consumer products (including footwear, toys, and electronics); defence, information technology, artificial intelligence, agribusiness, food processing; transportation equipment, including automobiles, railcars and locomotives, ships, aircraft; biotechnology, pharmaceutical, telecommunications equipment, space exploration, commercial space launch vehicles, satellites
$3.380 trillion (2023)[17]
- Agricultural products 2.2%
- Fuels and mining products 2.4%
- Manufacturers 74.3%
- Others 0.1%[18]
ASEAN 15.5%
European Union 14.8%
United States 14.8%
Hong Kong 8.12%
Japan 4.66%
South Korea 4.40%
India 3.48%
Russia 3.28%- Others 30.96%[17]
$2.557 trillion (2023)[17]
- Agricultural products 7.5%
- Fuels and mining products 21.3%
- Manufacturers 64.4%
- Others 4.8%[18]
- ASEAN 15.18%
- European Union 11.02%
Taiwan 7.80%- United States 6.42%
- South Korea 6.33%
- Japan 6.28%
Australia 6.08%- Russia 5.05%
- Others 35.48%[17]
$2.38 trillion (September 2023)
¥103.987 trillion- 82.9% of GDP (2023)[1]
- 2.8% of GDP (2023)[20]
¥33.229 trillion[1]
26.5% of GDP (2023)
¥42.140 trillion[1]
33.6% of GDP (2023)
China is the world's largest manufacturing economy and exporter of goods.[33] However, exports as a percentage of GDP has steadily dropped to just around 20%, reflecting its decreasing importance to the Chinese economy. Nevertheless, it remains the largest trading nation in the world and plays a prominent role in international trade.[34][35] Manufacturing has been transitioning toward high-tech industries such as electric vehicles, renewable energy, telecommunications and IT equipment, and services has also grown as a percentage of GDP. It is also the world's fastest-growing consumer market and second-largest importer of goods.[36] China is also the world's largest consumer of numerous commodities, and accounts for about half of global consumption of metals.[37] China is a net importer of services products.[38] China was the largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world as of 2020, receiving inflows of $163 billion.[39] but more recently, inbound FDI has fallen sharply to negative levels.[40][41] It has the second largest outbound FDI, at US$136.91 billion for 2019.[42]
China has the world's largest foreign-exchange reserves worth $3.1 trillion,[43] but if the foreign assets of China's state-owned commercial banks are included, the value of China's reserves rises to nearly $4 trillion.[44] China faced a mild economic slowdown during the 2007–2008 financial crisis and initiated a massive stimulus package, which helped to regain its economic growth. More recently, the imposition of the "3 Red Lines" on developer borrowing has sparked a real estate crisis and has raised questions on the accuracy of China's claims for the severity of this crisis.[45][46][47] China's economic growth is slowing down in the 2020s as it deals with a range of challenges from a rapidly aging population, higher unemployment and a property crisis.[48] China has the world's sixth largest gold reserve, with over 2,000 tonnes of gold.[49] It spends around 2.43% of GDP on advance research and development across various sectors of the economy.[50][51]
With 791 million workers, the Chinese labor force was the world's largest as of 2021, according to The World Factbook. In 2022, China was ranked the 11th most innovative country in the world, 3rd in Asia & Oceania region and 2nd for countries with a population of over 100 million. It is the only middle-income economy and the only newly industrialized economy in the top 30.[52][53] It also leads in several measures of global patent filings,[54][55] as well as research and scientific output.[56] It is also the world's largest high-technology exporter.[57] China has the second-largest financial assets in the world, valued at $17.9 trillion as of 2021.[58] As of 2022, China was second in the world in total number of billionaires.[59] and second in millionaires with 6.2 million. China has the largest middle-class in the world, with over 500 million people earning over RMB 120,000 a year.[60]
China has bilateral free trade agreements with many nations and is a member of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).[61] China is widely regarded as the "powerhouse of manufacturing" or "the factory of the world".[62] Of the world's 500 largest companies, 142 are headquartered in China.[63] It has four of the world's top ten most competitive financial centers[64] and three of the world's ten largest stock exchanges (both by market capitalization and by trade volume).[65] Public social expenditure was around 10% of GDP in China.[66] Additionally, the public pension expenditure in China accounted for 5.2% of GDP.[67]