BEIJING - China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5 percent year-on-year in 2024, meeting the annual target of around 5 percent, official data showed Friday.

In the fourth quarter of the year, China's GDP expanded 5.4 percent year-on-year, according to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The pace accelerated from the 4.6-percent growth in the previous quarter. On a quarterly basis, the Chinese economy increased 1.6 percent in the period, according to the bureau.

Industrial output

Friday's data also showed that China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 5.8 percent year-on-year in 2024.

In December alone, the industrial output grew 6.2 percent from a year earlier and 0.64 percent from November.

he industrial output is used to measure the activity of large enterprises each with an annual main business turnover of at least 20 million yuan ($2.78 million).

Fixed asset investment

In 2024, the country's fixed-asset investment went up 3.2 percent year-on-year, according to the bureau's data.

The total investment stood at 51.4 trillion yuan in the period, the bureau said.

Investment in infrastructure and the manufacturing sectors expanded 4.4 percent and 9.2 percent, respectively, compared with a year earlier, while property development investment dropped 10.6 percent.

High-tech industries saw strong growth, with investment up 8 percent year-on-year. Specifically, investment in high-tech manufacturing and high-tech services sectors expanded by 7 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively.

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The country's fixed-asset investment edged up 0.33 percent month-on-month in December alone.

Retail sales

On China's consumer market in 2024, the retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, climbed 3.5 percent year-on-year, the official data showed.

Total retail sales of consumer goods reached 48.79 trillion yuan last year, according to Friday's data.

In December alone, the retail sales of consumer goods rose 3.7 percent year-on-year, the bureau said.

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Home prices

The official data also indicated that home prices in first-tier Chinese cities increased in December compared to the previous month.

According to the data, prices of new homes and resold homes in the four cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen increased by 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Among the 70 large and medium-sized cities, 23 saw month-on-month increases in new home prices, up from 17 in November, and nine registered rising prices for resold homes, compared to 10 registered in the previous month.

Disposable income

Meanwhile, the bureau pointed out people's incomes in China showed stable growth in 2024 amid a continued economic recovery, 

The country's per capita disposable income stood at 41,314 yuanin 2024, up 5.3 percent year-on-year in nominal terms, while representing an increase of 5.1 percent after deducting price factors, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Median per capita disposable income nationwide was 34,707 yuan in 2024, a nominal increase of 5.1 percent year-on-year.

Incomes of rural residents, up 6.6 percent year-on-year in nominal terms, grew faster than incomes of city dwellers, who enjoyed increases of 4.6 percent in 2024.

China's per capita consumption expenditure came in at 28,227 yuan in 2024, up 5.3 percent year-on-year in nominal terms, and increasing 5.1 percent after the deduction of price factors. Notably, the per capita consumption on services rose 7.4 percent and accounted for 46.1 percent of the per capita consumption expenditure last year.

Urban unemployment

Regarding the job market, the surveyed urban unemployment rate on average in China stood at 5.1 percent in 2024, down 0.1 percentage points from 2023, according to the data.