China Data Shows Strong Growth

Braving the virus test and challenges in domestic and international situations, the Chinese economy ended 2020 on solid footing, becoming the only major economy to achieve positive growth in the pandemic-ravaged year.

Here are some related facts and figures from a communique released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Sunday.

-- GDP grew 2.3 percent year on year to hit 101.6 trillion yuan (about 15.7 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2020. From a 6.8-percent contraction in Q1, 3.2-percent expansion in Q2, 4.9-percent recovery in Q3 to a 6.5-percent rebound in Q4, the V-shaped trajectory made China the only major economy to log positive growth.

-- New economic drivers continued to grow, with the tertiary industry accounting for 54.5 percent of GDP.

-- Final consumption pulled down whole-year GDP by 0.5 percentage points.

-- A total of 11.86 million new urban jobs were created in the whole year, with the surveyed urban unemployment rate at 5.2 percent by the end of 2020.

-- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.5 percent year on year in 2020. The producer price index (PPI), which measures cost of goods at the factory gate, fell 1.8 percent.

-- China's foreign exchange reserves expanded to 3.2165 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of 2020. Yuan's average exchange rate against the U.S. dollar came in at 6.8974, appreciating 0.02 percent from a year earlier.

-- China lifted its remaining 5.51 million impoverished rural residents out of poverty in 2020.

-- Per capita disposable income of rural residents in poverty-stricken areas stood at 12,588 yuan, a 5.6-percent year-on-year rise in real terms after deducting price factors.

-- Of the 337 monitored cities, 59.9 percent saw air quality up to standards.

-- China's grain output reached nearly 670 billion kg in 2020, up 5.65 billion kg or 0.9 percent from a year earlier.

-- China's total imports and exports of goods expanded 1.9 percent year on year to 32.16 trillion yuan in 2020.

-- Foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 6.2 percent year on year to about one trillion yuan in 2020.

-- Research and development expenditure increased 10.3 percent to over 2.44 trillion yuan, accounting for 2.4 percent of GDP.

-- The number of successful space launches came in at 35, including China's Chang'e-5 probe that brought back lunar samples.