The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is touting the emergence of consumption as a primary driver of China’s economic growth four decades after the launch of the country’s reform and opening drive.
The NBS released the “7th Report in the Series on Economic and Social Development Accomplishments in the 40th Year of Reform and Opening” (改革开放40年经济社会发展成就系列报告之七) points out that social consumer good sales have seen average per annum growth of 15% during the period from 1978 to 2017, rising from 155.9 billion yuan to 36.6262 trillion yuan.
The rapid growth of China’s consumer market has transformed consumption into the primary driver of growth.
NBS data indicates that end consumption expenditures made a contribution of 58.8% to GDP growth in 2017, as compared to just 38.3% in 1978, for a rise of 20.5 percentage points in a forty year period.
Over the same period contribution rate of capital formation to GDP growth fell to 32.1% in 2017 as compared to 67.0% in 1978, for a decline of 34.9 percentage points.
According to the NBS consumption has emerged as a “stabiliser” and “ballast stone” for the steady performance of the Chinese economy.
“Chinese consumption has undergone huge change, the consumer market is continually expanding in scope, the structure of consumption is seeing optimised adjustment….consumption has become the primary driver of economic growth.”
