In 2023, the gross domestic product (GDP) of China amounted to around 17.8 trillion U.S. dollars. In comparison to the GDP of the other BRIC countries India, Russia and Brazil, China came first that year and second in the world GDP ranking. The stagnation of China's GDP in U.S. dollar terms in 2022 and 2023 was mainly due to the appreciation of the U.S. dollar. China's real GDP growth was three percent in 2022 and 5.2 percent in 2023. In 2023, per capita GDP in China reached around 12,600 U.S. dollars. Economic performance in China Gross domestic product (GDP) is a primary economic indicator. It measures the total value of all goods and services produced in an economy over a certain time period. China's economy used to grow quickly in the past, but the growth rate of China’s real GDP gradually slowed down in recent years, and year-on-year GDP growth is forecasted to range at only around four percent in the years after 2023. Since 2010, China has been the world’s second-largest economy, surpassing Japan.China’s emergence in the world’s economy has a lot to do with its status as the ‘world’s factory’. Since 2013, China is the largest export country in the world. Some argue that it is partly due to the undervalued Chinese currency. The Big Mac Index, a simplified and informal way to measure the purchasing power parity between different currencies, indicates that the Chinese currency yuan was roughly undervalued by 31 percent in 2023. GDP development Although the impressive economic development in China has led millions of people out of poverty, China is still not in the league of industrialized countries on the per capita basis. To name one example, the U.S. per capita economic output was more than six times as large as in China in 2023. Meanwhile, the Chinese society faces increased income disparities. The Gini coefficient of China, a widely used indicator of economic inequality, has been larger than 0.45 over the last decade, whereas 0.40 is the warning level for social unrest.

Worldwide motor vehicle production amounted to more than 94 million units in 2023. Some 73 percent of the motor vehicle production was generated by the passenger cars segment, amounting to almost 68 million units. Chinese market recovery China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of passenger cars. This means that any change in production and sales in the Chinese automotive market will be noticeable in global figures. The Chinese economy has grown in tandem with vehicle production and sales. However, between 2016 and 2019, this growth slowed. Motorists in China have been unable to afford new cars due to lower employment levels and higher prices that came as a result of higher tariffs. Between December 2019 and March 2020, the economy was hit hard by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The automotive market cratered in February but rebounded soon thereafter. Chinese motorists purchased about 24 million passenger cars and more than three million commercial vehicles in 2022. COVID-19 and the motor vehicle industry The coronavirus outbreak brought many nations and their economies to a grinding halt in 2020. The effect on the motor vehicle industry was particularly noticeable. Many manufacturing facilities across the world were shut down to prevent the spreading of the virus. However, the industry has partially recovered since, showing an upward production output trend, which remains below the pre-pandemic levels.