Key figures in China’s 2023 government work report

Beijing: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered a government work report at the opening meeting of the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress in Beijing on Sunday, reviewing China’s achievements in 2022 and setting targets for 2023.

In 2023, China aims to expand its economy by around 5 percent. The other main targets include creating about 12 million new urban jobs, a surveyed urban unemployment rate of around 5.5 percent, keeping the CPI increase – the main gauge for inflation – at around 3 percent and grain output of over 650 million tonnes.

Graphics: Key figures in China’s 2023 government work report

China stabilized the economy, steadily enhanced development quality, and maintained overall social stability in 2022. Over the past five years, the country has made remarkable achievements in economic and social development, according to the government work report.

Graphics: Key figures in China’s 2023 government work report

The country’s GDP has increased to 121 trillion yuan (about $17.5 trillion), registering an average annual growth rate of 5.2 percent over the past five years. The economy has remained the second largest in the world.

It has secured a bumper harvest for 19 years in a row despite a global food crisis. Its grain output in 2022 hit a new record high to reach 686.5 billion kilograms, marking the eighth consecutive year that its grain output has exceeded 650 billion kilograms.

China’s job market remained generally stable in 2022, as a total of 12.06 million new urban jobs were created, exceeding the annual target of 11 million.

The country has also made fruitful gains in scientific and technological innovation, with spending on R&D increasing from 2.1 percent to over 2.5 percent of GDP and the contribution of scientific and technological progress to economic growth exceeding 60 percent.

The economic structure has been further improved. The value-added outputs of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing have recorded an average annual growth rate of 10.6 percent and 7.9 percent respectively over the past five years.

The urbanization rate has increased steadily, with approximately 65.2 percent of the total population in China living in cities in 2022.

The country has further upgraded infrastructure, with the length of in-service high-speed railways growing to 42,000 kilometers and the highway network reaching 177,000 kilometers in 2022. Its installed power generation capacity surged over 40 percent in the past five years.

Over the past five years, China has deepened reform and opening up across the board, and made a notable improvement in the business environment. The country’s foreign trade volume reached 42.1 trillion yuan in 2022, growing at an average annual rate of 8.6 percent.

China’s ecological environment has been significantly improved as energy consumption per unit of GDP fell by 8.1 percent, and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP declined by 14.1 percent.

Nearly 100 million poor rural residents and a total of 832 impoverished counties have been lifted from poverty after eight years of efforts. Over 9.6 million poverty-stricken people have been relocated from inhospitable areas.

People’s living standards have risen steadily, with personal income growing generally in step with the economic growth. By the end of 2022, the number of people covered by basic old-age insurance in China had reached nearly 1.05 billion.