China says economy grew 5% in 2025, meeting official target

ISLAMABAD: China’s gross domestic product rose 5% in 2025 from a year earlier to $20.1 trillion, meeting the government’s annual growth target of around 5%, state broadcaster CGTN reported on Monday.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that nationwide per capita disposable income increased 5% year on year, indicating steady growth in household earnings.

Consumption continued to expand, with total retail sales of consumer goods rising 3.7% from the previous year to 50.12 trillion yuan ($$7.02 trillion) in 2025. Online retail sales grew faster, rising 8.6% to $2.24 trillion.

On the supply side, value-added industrial output rose 5.9% year on year in 2025. In December alone, industrial output increased 5.2% from a year earlier, the NBS said.

Despite increasingly complex domestic and external conditions, China’s economy remained resilient. It continued to shift toward new growth drivers and higher-quality development, NBS Commissioner Kang Yi said at a press briefing, adding that the country had met its main economic and social development goals for the year.

Robust exports remained a bright spot, despite that bruising trade war.

China's trade surplus hit a record $1.2 trillion last year, with officials lauding a "new historical high" filled by other trade partners.

Shipments to the ASEAN group of Southeast Asian nations rose 13.4% year-on-year, while exports to Africa saw 25.8% growth.

Exports to the European Union were also up 8.4%, though imports from the bloc dipped.

With input from wires.