China revises 2023 GDP upwards to $17.73 trillion, rules out impact on 2024 figure (#1688671)

China revised up its gross domestic product (GDP) for 2023 by 2.7% to 129.4 trillion yuan ($17.73 trillion), a senior statistics official said on Thursday, releasing the fifth economic census. national.

Policy support late this year has put China's economy on track to hit a growth target of “around 5%” as activity recovered slightly, but challenges such as potential tariff increases in the United States still weigh. about the prospects for next year.

Kang Yi, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, made the remarks at a news conference in Beijing, the capital, adding that the bureau would publish more details of the review on its website in the coming days.

China's economy has “withstood the test of multiple internal and external risks over the past five years and has maintained a generally stable trend while progressing,” Kang said.

The fifth economic census conducted in the last five years covered the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a significant impact on the economy, he said.

The international environment has witnessed “profound and complex changes” since the previous census, he added.

However, the 2023 GDP revision would not have a significant impact on China's 2024 GDP growth rate, Lin Tao, deputy director of the bureau, said at the same briefing.

The World Bank on Thursday raised its forecast for China's economic growth in 2024 and 2025, but warned that weak household and business confidence, along with headwinds in the real estate sector, would continue to weigh down the country next year. anus.

The economic census showed changes in China's labor market, with 25.6% more people employed in tertiary industries at the end of 2023 than at the end of 2018, but secondary industries had 4.8% fewer employees.

As a severe housing crisis hampers macroeconomic recovery, employees of property developers fell 27% to 2.71 million at the end of 2023 compared to the corresponding figure in 2018, economic census data showed.

Overall employment in the real estate industry increased by 40.2% to 1.04 million at the end of 2023 compared to the figure at the end of 2018.
Tertiary industries range from retail to transport, catering, accommodation, finance and property, while secondary industries cover mining, manufacturing, utilities and construction, for example.