BEIJING - After
surpassing France and the United Kingdom in 2005
to become the world's fourth-largest economy in
terms of gross domestic product (GDP), China has
further narrowed its gap with the top three
economies - the US, Japan and Germany.
Last year, China's GDP reached 21.09
trillion yuan (US$2.72 trillion), equivalent to
20% of the United States', 60.6% of Japan's and
91.3% of Germany's, according to a special report
released by the National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS) on Tuesday.
Some analysts expect
that China will surpass Germany as the
world's third-largest economy
this year, given its fast economic growth and the
slow yet steady revaluation of its currency, the
yuan. By comparison, in 2002, China's GDP was just
13.9% of the United States', 37% of Japan's and
71.8% of Germany's, said the NBS report.
Accordingly, with its fast economic
growth, China now contributes more than 5.5% of
the world's GDP, up from 4.4% in 2002.
The
special report, released ahead of next month's
Chinese Communist Party 17th National Congress,
hails China's achievements in economic and social
development since the last party congress in late
2002, when Hu Jintao succeeded Jiang Zemin as
party general secretary.
China's economy
has expanded by more than 10% in each of the past
four years, at an average of 10.4%. That is more
than double the average growth rate of the world
economy during the same period and is higher than
any period in China since reform and opening-up in
the late 1970s, the NBS said.
China's
booming economy also saw its per capita income
cross the $2,000 threshold for the first time in
2006. According to World Bank standards, China
should no longer be considered a low-income
nation, as its per capita income now resembles
that of a middle-income country.
Living
standards of the Chinese people have also improved
considerably, as income levels have steadily
increased since 2002.
While enjoying such
rapid and stable economic growth, China has
restructured its economy to increase the weight of
its service sector in poorer western regions, the
NBS said. By 2006, the service industry accounted
for 40.1% of the economy, as retail sales
increased by an average of 12.2% each year in the
four years.
Chinese enterprises have
registered impressive profit records, bolstering
the national economic growth. Corporate profits as
a whole grew at an average of more than 20% each
year in the past four years.
Meanwhile,
the national coffers have reaped more revenue.
They reached 3.87 trillion yuan in 2006, which is
more than double the total in 2002. It represents
an average annual growth of 19.6%. Increased
fiscal revenue has also made it possible to make
more payment transfers to the economically
backward regions, the NBS said.
The
national drive to conserve energy and reduce
emissions has also progressed over the past four
years. While the energy consumption per unit of
GDP increased for three consecutive years by 2005,
the index finally began to decrease in 2006. This
has been a hard-won result, the NBS said.
In 2006, the NBS said, China produced
energy in amounts equivalent to 2.2 billion tonnes
of coal, up by 53.7% from 2002. China also saw
rapid progress in trade. Its trade volume reached
$1.76 trillion in 2006, the third-largest in the
world. In 2002, it was the sixth-largest.
China's income from international tourism
has also grown rapidly, the NBS said. In 2006,
there were 35.6% more tourists in China than in
2002. The country recorded $33.9 billion in
revenue from international tourism, up 66.5% from
2002.
China has found it easier to develop
its rural regions because of the growth of
fixed-assets investment. These investments often
reflect the potential for development in a region,
and have increased faster in the middle, western
and northeast regions. In 2006, for example,
fixed-assets investment in the middle provinces
accounted for 19.3% of the national total, 1.6
percentage points higher than in 2002.
This indicates that those regions that are
lagging behind economically are gaining greater
potential for future development.
Overall
national fixed-assets investment reached 32.5
trillion yuan between 2003 and 2006, more than
during the period between 1981 and 2002.
Fixed-assets investment grew at an average rate of
26.6% over the past four years, 6.2 percentage
points higher than the period between 1981 and
2002.
China has also seen its urban
population grow steadily in the past four years as
its rural population has decreased, which helps
balance national development, the NBS said.
The bureau predicted that as the state
puts in more resources into building a new
countryside and further increases its subsidies to
farmers, the income of farmers will continue to
grow, which will further promote the balanced
development of urban and rural areas.
In
2006, rural residents saw their incomes grow by
7.4% to an average of 3,587 yuan. Their income
increased by more than 6% for three consecutive
years, which was rare in the past, the NBS said.
The average income of urban residents was
11,759 yuan in 2006, up 10.4% from 2005. It was
the fourth consecutive year that urban income
increased by more than 7%.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
