Guangdong Province, China’s largest provincial economy, saw a 3.5% GDP growth in 2024, failing to meet the target of around 5% growth for the second consecutive year.
On January 25th, the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics released a summary of the economic performance in 2024. According to the unified accounting of regional gross domestic product (GDP), the total GDP of the province reached 14.163 trillion yuan in 2024, a 3.5% increase over the previous year at constant prices.
Of this, the value added in the primary industry was 583.703 billion yuan, up 3.4%; the value added in the secondary industry was 5,436.547 billion yuan, up 4.4%; and the value added in the tertiary industry was 8,143.131 billion yuan, up 2.8%.
Guangdong had initially set a growth target of around 5% for its GDP in 2024, marking the second consecutive year of failure to achieve its economic growth target.
On January 15th, Governor Wang Weizhong mentioned in a government work report that Guangdong’s GDP last year was 14 trillion yuan, ranking first in China for 36 consecutive years.
Historically, it has been widely recognized that official CCP data often conceals unfavorable situations, and the actual data may be even worse.
Governor Wang Weizhong stated that adverse effects deepened due to changes in the external environment, as Guangdong’s high degree of openness to the outside world directly exposed it to impacts. Inadequate effective demand, operational difficulties for some enterprises, and the ongoing adjustment in the real estate market have all posed challenges. The transition from old to new growth drivers is experiencing pains, and fundamental issues still exist regarding key core technologies being restricted by human factors.
Analysis by Southern Finance and Economics All-Media indicates that Guangdong’s economic aggregate has long accounted for over 10% of the national total, serving as a cornerstone of the country’s economy. Therefore, when the national economy faces difficulties and challenges, Guangdong often bears pressure earlier and to a greater extent.
Some analysts believe that the dismal economic data of Guangdong, as the largest provincial economy in China, offers a glimpse into the actual state of the Chinese economy.