On January 17, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to introduce the operation of the national economy in 2024 and answer reporters' questions.

(Xinhua News Agency Meng Lijing Fang Dongxu Compiled)

Kang Yi, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, said: "Preliminary accounting, the annual GDP is 134.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.0% over the previous year at the same time. By industry, the added value of the primary industry is 9.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.5% over the previous year; the added value of the secondary industry is 49.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.3%; the added value of the tertiary industry is 76.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.0%. "

On January 17, the State Council Information Office held a press conference in Beijing. Kang Yi, Director of the National Bureau of Statistics, and Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics and Director of the National Economic Comprehensive Statistics Department, introduced the operation of the national economy in 2024 and answered questions from reporters. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jin Liangkuai

In 2024, facing the complex and severe external environment, China's economy has overcome the wind and waves, made steady progress, and continued to consolidate the positive trend. The pace of moving along the high-quality development channel has become more solid, providing strong support for the recovery and development of the world economy and creating more opportunities.

Zhang Junwei, a researcher at the Macroeconomic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that looking back on the past year, the outstanding manifestation of economic operation is the continuous optimization of the economic structure. The added value of my country's high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 8.9%, significantly faster than the growth rate of industry and even equipment manufacturing industry; the added value of information transmission, software and information technology services all achieved double-digit growth; the output of new energy vehicles, integrated circuits, industrial robots and other products increased significantly, which all reflect the direction of my country's industrial upgrading and evolution.

On January 8, in Las Vegas, USA, people watched the robot dog display in the exhibition area of ​​Chinese company Yushu Technology. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Zeng Hui)

According to customs statistics, from the perspective of total volume, my country's goods trade has crossed two trillion-level marks in 2024, with the total import and export value of 43.85 trillion yuan for the whole year, an increase of 5% year-on-year, setting a new historical high, and the goal of quality improvement and volume stability was successfully achieved. A new round of measures to promote stable growth of foreign trade has been introduced one after another, effectively promoting foreign trade to reach a quarterly historical high of 11.51 trillion yuan in the fourth quarter. Especially in December 2024, the import and export scale exceeded 4 trillion yuan for the first time that month, with a growth rate increasing to 6.8%, and the foreign trade for the whole year was successfully concluded.

On August 6, 2024, a Ro-ro-ship ship was shipped at Yantai Port, Shandong Port (drone photos). Xinhua News Agency (photo by Tang Ke) Zhang Jun, chief economist and director of the Research Institute of China Galaxy Securities, said that in recent years, China's export industry has continued to upgrade, with stronger competitiveness, and its global industrial chain layout is more diversified and resilient. In 2024, my country's imports and exports to countries with jointly building the "Belt and Road" increased by 6.4%, accounting for 50.3% of the total import and export volume.

Consumers are learning about old-for-new information on the national consumer goods trade-in action - Shandong Station and 2024 National Electricity Consumption Season event held by consumers in Qingdao, Shandong Province (photo on May 17, 2024). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ziheng

Kang Yi said that from the perspective of consumption, the total retail sales of consumer goods in the fourth quarter of 2024 increased by 3.8% year-on-year, and the policy of exchanging consumer goods with old and new products was driven by the increase. In the fourth quarter, the total retail sales of household appliances and audio-visual equipment, furniture, automobiles, construction and decoration materials of units above the limit drove the total retail sales of consumer goods in the entire society by about 1 percentage point.

Zhang Jun analyzed that from the perspective of demand, in the fourth quarter of 2024, with the boost of various policies, residents' willingness to consume has increased significantly, especially under the promotion of the old-for-new policy, the growth rate of related durable consumer goods such as home appliances has improved significantly, and the average growth rate in the fourth quarter jumped by more than 30%.

2025 is the year when the 14th Five-Year Plan is concluded. Kang Yi said, "In the next stage, we must follow the decisions and deployments of the Central Economic Work Conference, face up to difficulties, strengthen confidence, and do things first, transform all favorable factors into development achievements, and continuously promote the sustained improvement of the economy."

Author: Chen Luyuan, Zhao Huan, Liang Min, Chen Fang

Xinhua News Agency Audio and Video Department

Xinhua News Agency Guangxi Branch

Shanghai Securities News

Co-produced