Latest data shows that “China’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2021 was over half a trillion yuan more than initially calculated.”
“The update comes at a time the world’s second-largest economy faces severe strain from an unprecedented wave of Covid infections sweeping the country,” Laura He writes.
The nation’s economy grew 8.4% in 2021 from a year earlier, which is higher than the 8.1% initially reported, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
“China’s GDP reached 114.92 trillion yuan ($16.52 trillion) last year, up 556.7 billion yuan ($80 billion) from the previous estimate, the revised figures show. “The addition is equivalent to Bulgaria’s entire GDP in 2021,” Laura adds.
The NBS said: “Revisions to initial estimates of GDP are common in many economies, mainly because of the large amount of information used in data construction.”
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The widely unpopular zero-Covid strategy adopted by the country strained the economy even further
As per Laura, “the government previously set this year’s growth target at about 5.5%, but that is likely to be missed as the economy has been hammered by months of lockdowns and a slumping housing market.”
The growth of China’s economy is expected “to fall between 2.8% and 3.2% this year, one of the lowest levels since 1976, when former leader Mao Zedong’s death ended a decade of social and economic tumult.”
