Robots weld bodyshells of cars at a workshop of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Li Auto Inc. in Changzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, Jan 10, 2024. Photo:Xinhua

China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday revised the country's GDP to about 129.43 trillion yuan ($17.73 trillion), an increase of around 3.37 trillion yuan from the preliminary figure, following the completion of the fifth National Economic Census. The census highlighted significant progress in China's high-quality development over the past five years.

The national economic census is conducted every five years and helps obtain scientific and accurate statistical information for improving macroeconomic governance and scientifically formulating medium and long-term development plans, according to Xinhua. 

"Overall, the Fifth National Economic Census has yielded fruitful results, with the major data objectively reflecting the new progress and achievements in China's economic and social development over the past five years," Kang Yi, head of NBS, told a press conference on Thursday afternoon. 

Specifically, the census presented a general picture of the secondary and tertiary industries, reflecting the new achievements of China's economic and social development, NBS said in a statement. "Over the past five years, significant progress was made in China's high-quality development," it said. 

Among the major outcomes of the census is the revision of China's GDP in 2023, which marked a 2.7-percent upward adjustment, which, NBS said, is based on data from the Fifth National Economic Census and relevant administrative records, whose process also factored in the change of the accounting approach of the owner-occupied housing services of urban households. NBS said that details of the revised data will be released on its website soon. 

"The revision of the GDP figure is remarkable in terms of the scale of the increase, but this is also objective and reasonable as the census offered a clearer picture of the Chinese economy by thoroughly surveying the development of a wide range of industries," Tian Yun, an economist based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Tian further noted that given new development trends, some new businesses and sectors may not have been covered in the country's data collection, resulting in lower GDP data than the real figure. "So, with the results of the census, the new GDP figure reflects China's real economic development more objectively," the economist said.

High-quality devt

Moreover, results from the fifth census showed that the number of units from the secondary and tertiary industries increased substantially, with more people being employed, according to NBS. 

At the end of 2023, there were 33.270 million legal entities engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries, an increase of 11.481 million or up by 52.7 percent compared with those at the end of 2018, when the last census was conducted. Furthermore, there were 428.984 million people employed by legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries, an increase of 45.748 million or up by 11.9 from 2018, the census showed. 

The census also indicated that enterprises' assets continued to expand, business revenue grew rapidly, the ability for scientific and technological innovation continued to develop and labor productivity was improved.

At the end of 2023, the total assets of legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries were 1,439.1 trillion yuan. In 2023, the business revenue of corporate enterprises in the secondary and tertiary industries was 442.6 trillion yuan, up by 50.2 percent compared with that of 2018.

"The general trend is that the tertiary industry is increasingly accounting for a larger proportion of the Chinese economy, while in terms of the secondary industry, there has also been significant progress made in the industrial upgrade," Hu Qimu, deputy secretary-general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Thursday. "In short, this reflects the high-quality development of the Chinese industry."

Notably, the census pointed to major development in several areas that are crucial to China's high-quality development, including growing investments in strategic emerging industries and in scientific and technological innovation. 

At the end of 2023, there were 96,000 industrial corporate enterprises above the designated size engaged in the strategic emerging industries, and 62,000 service corporate enterprises above the designated size engaged in the strategic emerging industries, according to NBS. 

The census also highlighted remarkable development in the digital economy. At the end of 2023, there were 2.916 million corporate enterprises engaged in the core industries of the digital economy, employing 36.159 million people, according to the census.

In terms of research and development (R&D), in 2023, the full-time equivalent of R&D personnel in industrial corporate enterprises above the designated size was 4.817 million person-years, and the R&D expenditure was 2.1 trillion yuan, the census showed. 

"This not only reflects China's high-quality development, but also the significant rise in China's competitiveness globally," Hu said, adding that while the Chinese economy faces some short-term challenges due to the worsening external environment, "the fundamentals for the positive outlook in the medium and long term have not changed."