China's stronger-than-expected economic rebound and continuous structural improvements last year have signaled that the country's pursuit of high-quality growth is set to gain more momentum in 2021, officials and experts said on Monday.
The world's second-largest economy grew by 2.3 percent in 2020, and it should be the only major economy to have achieved annual growth, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
The country's annual GDP came in at 101.6 trillion yuan ($15.7 trillion) last year, surpassing 100 trillion yuan for the first time and indicating that its overall national strength has reached a new level, the bureau said.
Economic growth normalized to pre-COVID-19 levels in the fourth quarter last year and hit 6.5 percent year-on-year, up from 4.9 percent in the third quarter, the achievements were hard-earned amid the pandemic and global economic recession.
Experts said they expect reviving consumption to replace investment and exports as the main driver of economic growth in 2021, underpinning strong annual growth forecasts between 7 percent and 9 percent.
A low comparison base in 2020, ramped-up investment in manufacturing sectors and new types of infrastructure as well as exports buoyed by the global economic recovery will also help sustain China's economic rebound, they said.
The country's consumer market has gradually recovered from the effects of COVID-19, with the growth in retail sales recovering to 4.6 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter, versus 0.9 percent in the third quarter, even as local COVID-19 cases constrained consumption in December, according to the NBS.
Recovering incomes and stabilizing employment have boosted experts' confidence in the anticipated recovery in consumption. The surveyed urban jobless rate nationwide was 5.2 percent in December and 5.6 percent on average for the whole year, below the government's annual control target of 6 percent, the NBS said.
Per capita disposable income grew by 2.1 percent in real terms to 32,189 yuan in 2020, with income growth for rural residents coming in at 3.8 percent and outpacing their urban counterparts, the bureau said.
The value-added output of high-tech manufacturing sectors rose by 7.1 percent last year, outpacing the 2.8 percent growth for the whole industrial sector, according to the NBS. Investment in high-tech industries grew by 10.6 percent in 2020, versus 2.9 percent of total fixed-asset investment.
