Overview: Beginning in late 1978 the Chinese leadership has been trying to move the economy from the sluggish Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more productive and flexible economy with market elements, but still within the framework of monolithic Communist control. To this end the authorities switched to a system of household responsibility in agriculture in place of the old collectivization, increased the authority of local officials and plant managers in industry, permitted a wide variety of small-scale enterprise in services and light manufacturing, and opened the economy to increased foreign trade and investment. The result has been a strong surge in production, particularly in agriculture in the early 1980s. Industry also has posted major gains, especially in coastal areas near Hong Kong and opposite Taiwan, where foreign investment and modern production methods have helped spur production of both domestic and export goods. Aggregate output has more than doubled since 1978. On the darker side, the leadership has often experienced in its hybrid system the worst results of socialism (bureaucracy, lassitude, corruption) and of capitalism (windfall gains and stepped-up inflation). Beijing thus has periodically backtracked, retightening central controls at intervals. In 1992-93 annual growth of GDP has accelerated, particularly in the coastal areas - to more than 10% annually according to official claims. In late 1993 China's leadership approved additional reforms aimed at giving more play to market-oriented institutions and at strengthening the center's control over the financial system. Popular resistance, changes in central policy, and loss of authority by rural cadres have weakened China's population control program, which is essential to the nation's long-term economic viability.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $2.61 trillion (1993 estimate based on a 1990 figure from the UN International Comparison Program, as extended to 1991 and published in the World Bank's World Development Report 1993; and as extrapolated by use of official Chinese growth statistics for 1992 and 1993)

National product real growth rate: 13.4% (1993)

National product per capita: $2,200 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 17.6% (December 1993 over December 1992)

Unemployment rate: 2.3% in urban areas (1992); substantial underemployment

Budget: deficit $15.6 billion (1993)

Exports: $92 billion (f.o.b., 1993)
commodities: textiles, garments, footwear, toys, crude oil
partners: Hong Kong, US, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Russia (1993)

Imports: $104 billion (c.i.f., 1993)
commodities: rolled steel, motor vehicles, textile machinery, oil products
partners: Japan, Taiwan, US, Hong Kong, Germany, South Korea (1993)

External debt: $80 billion (1993 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate 20.8% (1992)

Electricity:
capacity: 158,690,000 kW
production: 740 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 630 kWh (1992)

Industries: iron and steel, coal, machine building, armaments, textiles, petroleum, cement, chemical fertilizers, consumer durables, food processing

Agriculture: accounts for 26% of GNP; among the world's largest producers of rice, potatoes, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, and pork; commercial crops include cotton, other fibers, and oilseeds; produces variety of livestock products; basically self-sufficient in food; fish catch of 13.35 million metric tons (including fresh water and pond raised) (1991)

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of opium; bulk of production is in Yunnan Province; transshipment point for heroin produced in the Golden Triangle

Economic aid:
donor: to less developed countries (1970-89) $7 billion
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-87), $220.7 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-87), $13.5 billion

Currency: 1 yuan (Y) = 10 jiao
Exchange rates: yuan (Y) per US$1 - 8.7000 (January 1994), 5.7620 (1993), 5.5146 (1992), 5.3234 (1991), 4.7832 (1990), 3.7651 (1989)
note: beginning 1 January 1994, the People's Bank of China quotes the midpoint rate against the US dollar based on the previous day's prevailing rate in the interbank foreign exchange market

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding China on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of China Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about China Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.