Guangdong GDP Surpasses US$1tn
January 5, 2014 Leave a comment
Guangdong GDP Surpasses US$1tn
Staff Reporter
2014-01-04
The GDP of China’s Guangdong province is estimated to have grown 8.5% to over 6 trillion yuan (US$1 trillion), in 2013, becoming the sixth province in the nation to hit this mark.Guangdong GDP Surpasses US$1tnIf this is the case, Guangdong would rank as the 16th largest economy worldwide, were it a nation, trailing Mexico in 14th place with US$1.18 trillion and South Korea in 15th place with US$1.13 trillion.
Some experts, however, attribute the achievement partly to the revaluation of the renminbi, pointing to the unbalanced development of the provincial economy, as the four major cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, and Dongguan accounted for 70% of its GDP in 2013 and its per capita GDP ranked among the lowest nationwide, according to the Shanghai-based China Business News. The province’s per capita GDP amounted to only US$8,913 in 2012, compared with US$22,590 in South Korea and equal to that of Romania, whose GDP ranked 52nd place worldwide.
In 2013, Guangdong’s exports, a key element of its economy, grew 7.5% to over US$1 trillion, shy of the 8% growth target but still an exceptional performance, in view of the volatile global market.
In 2013, the province’s industrial infrastructure was further improved, as the added value of the service industry topped 3 trillion yuan (US$495.8 billion), surpassing that of secondary industries and replacing them to become the province’s foremost economic sector.
The private sector gained an even more important role in the economy in 2013, according to the China Business News, when the growth rate of its investments almost doubled that of fixed capital formation.
Thanks to e-commerce, total retail sales topped 2.55 trillion yuan (US$421.4 billion) in 2013.
Hu Gang, professor at the School of Management at Jinan University, remarked that it’s nothing extraordinary for Guangdong’s GDP to surpass US$1 trillion, as the province has over 100 million people, double the population of South Korea.
In addition, said Hu, the province still relies heavily on labor-intensive industries and is still engaged in an uphill battle in terms of industrial upgrading. It lags far behind South Korea and Taiwan in innovation and doesn’t have large numbers of foreign enterprises to bolster its economy as they do, with the possible exception of Shenzhen.
Guangdong is stepping up its effort to upgrade its economy, according Zhu Xiaodan, the governor, who noted at a press conference on Nov 22 last year that the share of consumption for the province’s economy had reached 54.4%, up from 45.5% in 2007, that of investment reached 43.7% up from 22.8%, and that of exports had reached 31.9% up from 31.7%.
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