The Chinese government targeted an annual economic growth of around 7 per cent for 2015. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) reached 67.67 trillion yuan (about $10.3 trillion) in 2015, with the service sector accounting for 50.5 per cent, the first time the ratio exceeded 50 per cent, according to the NBS. China's economy still "ran within a reasonable range" in 2015, with its structure further optimized, upgrading accelerated, new growth drivers strengthened and people's lives improved, NBS chief Wang Baoan told a press conference in Beijing.
However, the country faces a daunting task in deepening reforms on all fronts and needs to step up supply-side structural reforms, he said. Major economic indicators softened in 2015, with industrial output growth slowing to 6.1 per cent year on year from 8.3 per cent in 2014, NBS figures showed.
Urban fixed-asset investment continued to cool, expanding 10 per cent year on year, compared with 15.7 per cent in 2014. Retail sales rose 10.7 per cent, down from 12 per cent registered in 2014. Foreign trade ended 2015 with its first annual contraction in six years. Sagging global trade, rising financial risks and changing domestic market conditions were among the factors affecting the economy, NBS Chief Wang told reporters on Tuesday.
He also pointed to an ailing property sector and stock market fluctuations but said their impact on the economy was either limited or yet to be evaluated. Wang dismissed worries about China's government debts, noting that they accounted for less than 40 per cent of the country's GDP, well below the internationally accepted alert line of 60 per cent.
Comment: While Chinese economic growth for 2015 was the slowest it's been in 25 years, it's worth noting that it remains in a better position than Western countries under the thumb of the Unites States, which is expected to see average growth of somewhere around 2.5% for last year.
China has been working on releasing itself from the influence of the collapsing US economy, and that takes time and resources to implement. China understands that it is not just a matter of becoming untangled from the US, but that there needs to be an alternative global economic community that will be able to withstand a US collapse. Of course this is all lost on Western commentators because they are lost in the delusions of their own wishful thinking.