Innovation, green transition highlights China's economic growth in 2025

China posted steady economic growth in 2025 driven by fast-growing innovation strength and progress in green transition, according to a communique released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday.

Primary calculation indicated that China's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025 increased by five percent year on year to reach a record of 140.1879 trillion yuan (about 20.44 trillion U.S. dollars), hitting the annual target, said the communique.

In breakdown, the value added of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries grew by 3.9 percent, 4.5 percent and 5.4 percent year on year, respectively.

Overall labor productivity stood at 184,413 yuan per capita, marking an increase of 6.1 percent over the previous year.

The country's new quality productive forces grew steadily in 2025, with the value added of high-tech manufacturing above designated size increasing by 9.4 percent year on year.

Specifically, the output of high-tech products such as service robots, memory chips and 3D printing equipment grew by 16.1 percent, 22.8 percent and 52.5 percent, respectively.

The country also made notable progress in the green and low-carbon transition, according to the communique.

Preliminary calculations showed that China's carbon dioxide emissions per 10,000 yuan of GDP decreased by 5.0 percent year on year in 2025.

The power generation from clean energy sources such as hydropower, nuclear power, wind power and solar power reached 4.2481 trillion kilowatt-hours, up 14.4 percent from the previous year.

China's overall employment remained stable in 2025, according to the communique. The average surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.2 percent, lower than the target of around 5.5 percent, and 12.67 million new urban jobs were created.

Innovation, green transition highlights China's economic growth in 2025

People across China have embraced a new tradition of watching movies on the the Spring Festival or first day of the Chinese New Year, with with this year's box office hitting a record high of over 1.27 billion yuan (about 186 million U.S. dollars) on that day alone.

Single-day box office revenue on the Spring Festival, which fell on February 17 this year, reached 1.278 billion yuan. Notably, nearly 60 percent of moviegoers purchased tickets the same day, the highest in six years, according to data from Maoyan, a leading Chinese movie ticketing and data platform.

"The total number of screenings during the 2026 Spring Festival film season exceeded 4.34 million, setting a new historical high. On the Spring Festival alone, 595,000 screenings were recorded, setting a new single-day record. Watching a film on the first day of the Chinese New Year has evolved from a casual holiday option into a new festive tradition," said Lai Li, a market analyst at Maoyan.

During the Spring Festival film season, which ran from February 15 to February 23, third- and fourth-tier cities posted strong performances in box office revenue, contributing nearly 60 percent of the total.

Spring Festival moviegoing becomes new tradition as box office hits record