A Snapshot of the Chinese Economy in 2023

With the Chinese Year of the Dragon coming close, the News Letter draws a snapshot of the Chinese economy in the past year of 2023. Here are a few features to watch:

1.A sound recovery. For the whole year, the size of the economy surpasses 12.6 trillion yuan, posting an annual increase of 5.2%.

2.Continued upgrade of the structure. Internal cycle is playing a much greater role. Across the year, domestic demand contributed 111.4% of GDP growth, of which, 82.5% came from ultimate spending. Equipment manufacturing saw its added value up by 6.8%. Investment in high-tech manufacturing and high-tech services surged by 9.9% and 11.4% respectively.

3.Solid progress in high-quality development — about 921,000 new patents were authorized throughout the year.

4.Stable employment. There were over 12 million new jobs in towns and cities, with continued increase in residential income.

The following outlines a few more details:

Grain output reached another record high and production of animal husbandry grew steadily.The total output of grain in 2023 was 695.41 million tons, an increase of 8.88 million tons over the previous year, or up by 1.3%.

Industrial production recovered steadily and equipment manufacturing grew fast. The total value added of industrial enterprises above the designated size increased by 4.6% over the previous year. The production of solar cells, new energy vehicles and power-generating units (power-generating devices) grew by 54.0%, 30.3% and 28.5%, respectively. In December, the total value added of the industrial enterprises above the designated size grew by 6.8% year on year, or up by 0.52% month on month. In the first eleven months, the total profits made by industrial enterprises above the designated size were 6,982.3 billion yuan, down by 4.4% year on year, of which the profits in November grew by 29.5%, registering growth for four consecutive months. S

Service sector registered fast growth and contact-and-gathering-based services improved notably. The value added of services went up by 5.8% over the previous year. The value added of accommodation and catering, information transmission, software and information technology services, leasing and business services, transportation, storage and postal services, financial intermediation, and wholesale and retail grew by 14.5%, 11.9%, 9.3%, 8.0%, 6.8% and 6.2%, respectively.

Market sales recovered rapidly and services consumption grew fast. In 2023, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 47,149.5 billion yuan, up by 7.2% over the previous year.

Investment in fixed assets scaled up and investment in high-tech industries witnessed a good momentum of growth. In 2023, the investment in fixed assets (excluding rural households) reached 50,303.6 billion yuan, up by 3.0% over the previous year, or up by 6.4% after deducting price factors.

Imports and exports of goods was generally stable and trade structure continued to optimize. In 2023, the total value of imports and exports of goods was 41,756.8 billion yuan, an increase of 0.2% over the previous year.

Consumer price grew mildly and core consumer price index (CPI) was generally stable. In 2023, the CPI went up by 0.2% over the previous year.

Employment was generally stable and surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas went down. In 2023, the surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas averaged 5.2%, 0.4% percentage point lower than that of the previous year. In December, the surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas was 5.1%.

Resident income continued to increase and income of rural residents grew faster than that of urban residents. In 2023, the nationwide per capita disposable income of residents was 39,218 yuan, a nominal increase of 6.3% over that of the previous year, and a real increase of 6.1% after deducting price factors.