Macroeconomics

What is the Real Size of China's Economy?

January 1, 2007

Dianqing Xu

Christer Ljungwall

Abstract

On December 20, 2005, China's National Bureau of Statistics adjusted China's nominal GDP by CNY 2.3 trillion. The bulk of this upward adjustment was attributed to improved coverage of value-added by services. The service industry now makes-up 40 percent of GDP. Based on previous studies and other observations, this paper point out that there is still significant under-reporting of the service industry and, hence China's GDP is likely underestimated. We find a plausible share of service industry in GDP to be in the range of at least 45 to 55 percent

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