Overview

Since China began to open up and reform its economy in 1978, GDP growth has averaged over 9 percent a year, and almost 800 million people have lifted themselves out of poverty. There have also been significant improvements in access to health, education, and other services over the same period.China is now an upper-middle-income country. Although China has eradicated extreme poverty in 2020, an estimated 17.2 percent of the population lived on less than $6.85 a day (in 2017 PPP terms), the World Bank’s Upper-Middle-Income Country (UMIC) poverty line, in 2023.China’s strong growth has been based on investment and export-oriented manufacturing, an approach that has largely reached its limits, and has led to economic, social, and environmental imbalances. Reducing these imbalances will require a shift from manufacturing to high value services, from investment to consumption, and from high to low carbon intensity.In recent years, growth has moderated in the face of structural constraints,...