China’s National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday that the mainland’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 5.2% year-on-year to RMB126.1 trillion (US$17.6 trillion).
According to information provided, the added value of primary industry in 2023 amounted to RMB8.98 trillion (US$1.26 trillion), representing a 4.1% increase over the previous year. The added value of secondary industry amounted to RMB48.3 trillion (US$6.75 trillion), representing a 4.7% increase, while the added value of tertiary industry amounted to RMB68.8 trillion (US$9.61 trillion), representing a 5.8% increase.
On a quarterly basis, GDP grew by 4.5% year-on-year in 1Q23, by 6.3% in 2Q23, by 4.9% in 3Q23 and by 5.2% in 4Q23. The fourth quarter was slightly lower than the market expectation of 5.3% growth.
FY23 growth of 5.2% was in line with market expectations, but the mainland’s economic growth after reopening was relatively slow compared with pre-pandemic year-on-year growth of 6.1% in 2019.
A figure of greater concern was mainland China’s natural population growth rate, which declined by 1.48% in 2023 – the second consecutive year of negative population growth.
In 2023, there were 9.02 million births, with a birth rate of 6.39 per thousand, while there were 11.1 million deaths with a mortality rate of 7.87%.
As of the end of 2023, the population of mainland China (excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan residents and foreigners residing in China) was approximately 1,409,670,000, a decrease of approximately 2,080,000 as compared to the end of the previous year.
According to the China Development Report 2023 published by the Development Research Center of the State Council of China, it is expected that the continuation of declining birth rates on the mainland will dominate the long-term trend of demographic changes in China, and it is estimated that the number of births in the coming years will decrease by approximately 1 million every 10 years.
It is also predicted that the total population of China in 2035 will be approximately 1.4 billion, dropping to approximately 1.3 billion by 2050.
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