China’s 2019 GDP revised down, shrinking the base for 2020 growth calculations
- ‘Minimal’ revision in China’s GDP growth rate for last year – from 6.1 per cent to 6.0 per cent – represents a reduction of 435 billion yuan (US$67 billion) from earlier calculations
- Data adjustment puts China’s 2019 GDP at the lowest end of what had been Beijing’s official growth target range for the year
The size of China’s economy and its growth rate for 2019 are slightly smaller than Beijing previously announced, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday after its annual revision of economic data.
The NBS statement did not say how much the revision would affect the calculation of the 2020 growth rate. However, by creating a lower base for that calculation, the revision could potentially result in a larger increase for this year than otherwise would have been expected.
The downward revision for 2019 – from an annual growth rate of 6.1 per cent to 6.0 per cent – represents an overall reduction of 435 billion yuan (US$67 billion) from earlier calculations. According to the new figures, China’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP), before being adjusted for inflation, was 98.65 trillion yuan (US$15.1 trillion) in 2019.
Changes to data in China’s manufacturing industry were said to be the major drivers of the adjustment, with the industry’s value-added output reduced by 503.8 billion yuan from earlier estimates, followed by changes to the finance, transport and construction sectors, according to the NBS website.