A worker at a pipeline company in Quzhou, East China's Fujian Province is seen earlier this week. Companies in different cities across China are ramping up efforts for production after the Spring Festival holidays passed. Chinese officials have called for all-out efforts to strengthen the job-first strategy. Photo: cnsphoto

China's economic output is forecast to account for more than 17 percent of the world's economy in the coronavirus-plagued 2020. As the sole economy recording positive GDP growth last year, China will ramp up efforts and strive to achieve higher quality, more efficient, sustainable and safer development in 2021, a senior government official said on Sunday.

China's GDP broke through the 100-trillion-yuan ($15.5 trillion) mark, achieving an increase of 2.3 percent in 2020 despite the impact of COVID-19. 

To break down, the added value of the primary industry, taking up 7.7 percent of GDP, reached 7.78 trillion yuan, up 3.0 percent year-on-year; the secondary industry, taking up 37.8 percent of GDP, went up 2.6 percent; the tertiary industry, taking up 54.5 percent of GDP, rose 2.1 percent, according to an economic report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Sunday.

Throughout last year, total consumption expenditure drove a 0.5 percent drop in GDP, gross capital formation drove a 2.2 percent increase in GDP, while exports of goods and services contributed to a 0.7 percent increase in GDP, NBS data said.

The annual GDP per capita hit 72,447 yuan in 2020, up 2.0 percent year-on-year, surpassing $10,000 for two consecutive years. The gross national income was 100.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.9 percent over the previous year.

"2020 is the closing year of the '13th Five-Year Plan' (2016-20) and a crucial year for achieving the first centenary goal. After five years of hard work and continuous national efforts, the main economic and social development goals set out in the plan have been achieved," said Sheng Laiyun, deputy director of the NBS.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China's average annual nominal increase in GDP reached 6.5 trillion yuan, 1 trillion yuan more than that of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, he added.

"In the past year, trade protectionism and unilateralism prevailed, and economic globalization has encountered major challenges. In the face of this challenges, China's door to the outside world has not only remained open, but it has been opened wider and wider," said Sheng, adding that China has taken the initiative to strengthen international cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus, actively participated in economic globalization and nurtured many new growth opportunities.

The total value of imports and exports of goods in 2020 was 32.16 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.9 percent over the previous year, of which exports increased by 4 percent. The total value of trade and exports both hit a new record high, continuing to rank No.1 in the global trade in goods.

China has so far signed 19 free trade agreements with 26 economies. As of the end of January, a total of 205 cooperation documents have been signed, with 140 countries and 31 international organizations, to jointly build the iconic Belt and Road Initiative.

In 2021, marking the first year of the "14th Five-Year Plan" (2021-25), "We must take the first step and strive to achieve higher quality, more efficient, sustainable and safer development based on a new development stage, implementing new development concepts, and building a new development pattern," Sheng said.

He pointed out the challenges that still exist: a complex and severe external environment with many unstable and uncertain factors, the problem of unbalanced and insufficient domestic development within the country, the accelerating aging population, and the impact of the coronavirus crisis that has not been completely eliminated on a global scale.