Economy of Guangdong

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Guangzhou is the capital of the province of Guangdong. Guangzhou Twin Towers.jpg
Guangzhou is the capital of the province of Guangdong.
Shenzhen is one of the Special economic zones of China. Commercial area of futian to east2020.jpg
Shenzhen is one of the Special economic zones of China.

The economy of Guangdong is one of the most prosperous in China. Guangdong is located in southern China, bordering on Fujian Province to the east, Hunan Province to the north, Guangxi Autonomous Region to the west and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau to the south. It is also the largest economy of a sub-national entity in terms of GDP (almost US$2.0 trillion [1] as of 2021) in all of Asia and 3rd largest sub-national entity in the world.

Contents

In 2021, the gross regional product (GRP) is about $1.95 trillion, [2] with its per capita GDP of 98,700 RMB ($15,570 in nominal and $ 23,598 in PPP). [3] Guangdong has been the largest province by GDP since 1989 in Mainland China. [4] In 2021, Guangdong's GDP was slightly larger than South Korea, the world's tenth largest economy. [5] Guangdong's GDP by nominal is greater than the GDPs of all other BRICS states, except India. [6]

By Purchasing power parity (PPP) term, as of 2021, Guangdong's economy has a gross regional product (GRP) of $2.98 trillion, [7] ranking between the United Kingdom and Italy with a GDP of $3.34 trillion and US$ $2.71 trillion respectively, the 10th and 11th largest in the world respectively. [8]

Overview

This is a trend of official estimates [9] of the gross domestic product of the Province of Guangdong:

Historical GDP of Guangdong Province for 1978 –present (SNA2008) [10]
(purchasing power parity of Chinese Yuan, as Int'l.dollar based on IMF WEO April 2020 [11] )
yearGDPGDP per capita (GDPpc)
based on mid-year population
Reference index
GDP in millionsreal
growth
(%)
GDPpcexchange rate
1 foreign currency to CNY
CNY USD PPP
(Int'l$.)
CNYUSDPPP
(Int'l$.)
USD 1Int'l$. 1
(PPP)
201910,767,1101,560,7903,078,9606.394,17213,65126,9296.89853.497
20189,994,5201,510,3402,856,3906.888,78113,41625,3736.61743.499
20168,085,4911,217,2732,306,1217.574,01611,14321,1116.64233.5061
20157,402,7431,188,5462,085,8098.068,62911,01919,3376.22843.5491
20146,890,1431,121,6621,940,7217.864,49110,49918,1656.14283.5503
20136,345,5441,024,5991,774,0348.559,7569,64916,7066.19323.5769
20125,799,354918,7101,633,2538.254,9738,70915,4826.31253.5508
20115,395,920835,4371,539,27310.051,5237,97714,6986.45883.5055
20104,657,712688,0441,406,90912.445,2846,68913,6786.76953.3106
20093,993,713584,6451,264,8349.739,8905,84012,6336.83103.1575
20083,714,244534,8011,169,14110.437,9925,47011,9596.94513.1769
20073,205,379421,5391,063,17914.933,5624,41411,1327.60403.0149
20062,680,032336,189931,31014.828,7623,6089,9957.97182.8777
20052,272,329277,394794,79914.124,8283,0318,6848.19172.8590
20041,900,561229,625672,69414.821,0322,5417,4448.27682.8253
20031,595,925192,814587,49314.817,9272,1666,5998.27702.7165
20021,360,189164,334504,76512.415,4781,8705,7448.27702.6947
20011,212,659146,509446,56910.513,9521,6865,1388.27702.7155
20001,081,021130,583397,53611.512,8181,5484,7148.27842.7193
1995594,03471,133217,64315.68,1399752,9828.35102.7294
1990155,90332,59491,56811.62,4845191,4594.78321.7026
198557,73819,66241,19118.01,0263497322.93661.4017
198024,96516,66116,69316.64813213221.49841.4955
197818,58511,039-1.0370220-1.6836-

After the communist revolution and until the start of the Deng Xiaoping reforms in 1978, Guangdong was an economic backwater, although a large underground, service-based economy has always existed. Economic development policies encouraged industrial development in the interior provinces which were weakly linked to Guangdong via transportation links. The government policy of economic autarky made Guangdong's access to the ocean irrelevant.[ citation needed ]

Deng Xiaoping's open door policy radically changed the economy of the province as it was able to take advantage of its access to the ocean, proximity to Hong Kong, and historical links to overseas Chinese. Guangdong was one of the first provinces to be authorized by the central government to receive foreign investment. [12] :148 In addition, until the 1990s when the Chinese taxation system was reformed, the province benefited from the relatively low rate of taxation placed on it by the central government due to its post-Liberation status of being economically backward.[ citation needed ]

Although Shanghai is often cited as evidence of China's success, Guangdong's economic boom demonstrates that China has become a labor-intensive manufacturing economy. Guangdong's economic boom began with the early 1990s and has since spread to neighboring provinces, and also pulled their populations inward. Guangdong is China's largest exporter, as well as its largest importer of goods. [13] Its extensive manufacturing base is largely privately owned, making it less reliant on fixed asset investments than other provinces in China. [13]

The province is now one of the richest in the nation, with the highest GDP among all the provinces, although wage growth has only recently begun to rise due to a large influx of migrant workers from neighboring provinces. In 2021, Guangdong's per capita GDP was 98,700 RMB ($15,570 in nominal and $ 23,598 in PPP). [3]

Guangdong contributes approximately 9% of the total national economic output. [3] Now, it has three of the six Special Economic Zones: Shenzhen, Shantou and Zhuhai. The affluence of Guangdong, however, remains very much concentrated in a handful of cities near the Pearl River Delta. [13]

Recently, more than 7000 factories based in southern Guangdong cities such as Shenzhen and Dongguan has shut due to rapidly falling demand from western consumers, stricter labour and environmental regulations and the global financial crisis. [14] [15]

Economic and Technological Development Zones

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Guangdong, formerly romanized as Kwangtung or Canton, is a coastal province located in South China, on the north shore of the South China Sea. The provincial capital is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.84 million across a total area of about 179,800 km2 (69,400 sq mi), Guangdong is the most populous province of China and the 15th-largest by area as well as the third-most populous country subdivision in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubei</span> Province of China

Hubei is an inland province of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The provincial capital, Wuhan, serves as a major transportation hub and the political, cultural, and economic hub of central China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shenzhen</span> City in Guangdong, China

Shenzhen is a city and special economic zone on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong to the south, Dongguan to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, and Macau to the southwest. With a population of 17.56 million in 2020, Shenzhen is the third most populous city by urban population in China after Shanghai and Beijing. Shenzhen is a global center in technology, research, manufacturing, business and economics, finance, tourism and transportation, and the Port of Shenzhen is the world's fourth busiest container port.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shandong</span> Province of China

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liaoning</span> Province of China

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