Xi Jinping says China's economy can double by 2035. Here's my reasoning behind why China, in my opinion, can achieve this extremely modest forecast.
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According to last month's
, China will likely be able to achieve at least around an average of 6% economic growth between 2021 and 2025. This because growth rates between 2021 and 2025 are as forecast:
Year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
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GDP Growth Rate (%) | 8.237 | 5.798 | 5.733 | 5.646 | 5.494 |
GDP (current prices, billions RMB) | ¥112,870.53 | ¥121,939.16 | ¥131,747.28 | ¥142,322.11 | ¥153,496.91 |
So the period between 2021-25, China can achieve a total inflation-adjusted growth rate of 34.46%, which on average is an average annual rate of 6.1% per year within these 5 years. That's more than the necessary growth rate needed for China to ascend to high-income status by 2025 (2025 GDP per capita (PPP) of ~$30,000/year)
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Now, here's where my own forecast comes in. Since IMF economic forecasts end at 2025, I'll leave off where they started, based on a trend of slowly-tapering off economic growth for China (let's be more pessimistic than the IMF-forecast growth trend and say there will be a 0.15% decrease in percent growth rate in each succeeding year between 2026-2030). That pans out like this for the 2026-2030 period:
Year | 2026 | 2022 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
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GDP Growth Rate (%) | 5.35 | 5.2 | 5.05 | 4.9 | 4.75 |
GDP (2025 prices, billions RMB) | ¥161,708.99 | ¥170,117.86 | ¥178,708.81 | ¥187,465.55 | ¥196,370.16 |
So during the period between 2026-30, a reasonable forecast is that China can achieve a total inflation-adjusted growth rate of 27.93%, which on average is an annual rate of 5.0% per year within these 5 years.
Between 2021-30, hence, China's total inflation-adjusted growth rate will be 72.02%, meaning China's economy by 2030 will be 72.02% bigger than what it was in 2020 (this year), or an average of 5.57% annual growth between 2021 and 2030. Let's continue on.
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For the 2031-35 time period, let's forecast that a trend of slowly-tapering off economic growth for China continues (continuing with the pessimistic trend that there will be a 0.15% decrease in percent growth rate in each succeeding year between 2031-2035). That pans out like this:
Year | 2031 | 2032 | 2033 | 2034 | 2035 |
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GDP Growth Rate (%) | 4.6 | 4.45 | 4.3 | 4.15 | 4.00 |
GDP (2025 prices, billions RMB) | ¥205,403.19 | ¥214,543.63 | ¥223,769.00 | ¥233,055.42 | ¥242,377.64 |
So during the period between 2031-35, a reasonable forecast is that China can achieve a total inflation-adjusted growth rate of 23.43%, which on average is an annual rate of 4.3% per year within these 5 years.
Between 2021-35, hence, China's total inflation-adjusted growth rate will be 112.32%, meaning China's economy by 2030 will be 112.32% bigger than what it was in 2020 (this year), or an average annual growth rate of 5.15% between 2021 and 2035; this means China's economy can easily more than double in size by 2035. In fact, the doubling of the economy likely can be achieved even earlier by 2033-34. While this forecast is rather pessimistic, I think Xi's own 2035 prediction is the most pessimistic sort of "worst-case bottom-line scenario" for China's economy, especially if Trump were have been able to go ahead with full decoupling and Cold War 2.0, which is now highly unlikely with a Biden presidency.
Overall, my conclusion is yes:
it is extremely likely, almost certain, that China's economy can double by 2035.