Exports power Chineseeconomy to 5% growth

 

 

CHINA’S economy grew by five per cent last year to USD 20.01 trillion, ridinghighon therobust exports despite US tariffs while domestic consumption, its bugbear, remained sluggish. China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5 per cent year on year in 2025, meeting the annual target of around 5 per cent, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday. The GDP hit a record of 140.1879 trillion yuan which amounted to USD 20.01 trillion, surpassing the 20 trillion mark for the first time, according to the NBS data.

 

The growth, however, slowed to a three-year low of 4.5 per cent in the final quarter dragged down by a series of domestic headwinds. It was the slowest quarterly growthChinahadrecordedsince the final quarter of 2022, when it grew only 3 per cent as it was still affected by the COVID-19 crisis.Quarteronquarter,China’s economy expanded by 1.2 per cent in the last three months of 2025.Despiteacomplexdomestic and external environment, the economy advanced under pressure, achieving fresh progress in high-quality development, the NBS said. The main goals and tasks for economic and social development were fully achieved in 2025, bringing the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) to a successful conclusion, it said, sounding hopeful of a better start for the 15th Five-Year Plan starting this year. China managed to achieve the fivepercentGDP growthrate mainly due to record goods export trade surplus of USD 1.19 trillionlastyearshruggingoff the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs onslaught and decline in shipments to the US due to the rapid growth of other markets.

 

Observerssay thegrowth,however, remainedskewedasChina’s economy continued to be dependent on export growth while its internal demand remained sluggish coupled with downturn in the property market despite efforts by the ruling CommunistPartyofChina, (CPC) headed by President Xi Jinping toboostdomesticconsumption. According to theNBSdata, the country’s per capita disposable income stood at 43,377 yuan (about USD 6,192), up by 5 per cent year on year in nominal terms.

 

The data said that the job market has remained generally stable, with the surveyed urban unemployment rate holding steady at 5.2 per cent in 2025, while theunofficialestimatesput theunemployment figurearound 20percent.China’svalue-added industrial output expanded 5.9 percent year on year in 2025,official data showed on Monday. Commenting on China’s GDP data, Kang Yi, commissioner of thestatisticsbureau,saidChina’s economy had withstood multiple pressures tomaintain steady growth in 2025, but cautioned that external pressures were intensifying and many “longstandingproblemsandnewchallenges” were affecting economic development. Official data showed that China’s economy became more dependent on exports last year, with net exports accounting for 32.7percentofgrowth– thehighest proportion recorded since 1997 . According to the NBS, China’s retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country’s consumption strength, climbed 3.7percentyearonyear in 2025.