Updated China economic projection

China’s GDP in 2007 was 24.66 trillion yuan ($3.38 trillion) and per capita GDP was $2,556, official figures suggest.

UPDATE of this May article:
China’s currency is now 6.88 yuan to 1 USD. China’s GDP is now $3.78 trillion.

Hong Kong’s GDP is $409 billion in 2008

Including Hong Kong and Macau China has $4.2 trillion GDP.

China reports its own military spending at about 417.8 billion yuan. [US$60.7 billion] which would put China as the fourth largest spender after the USA, France and the UK

Rand has estimated China’s spending to be 33% higher than reported amounts and DoD doubles the military spending. Either adjustment would put China as the second largest military spender but well behind the USA’s military spending.

The Economist magazine noted that China’s national economic figures have been inaccurate but that the provincial numbers which show 10% higher growth have historically been shown to be more correct.

Stephen Green, an economist at Standard Chartered, calculates that in 2007 the combined output of the provinces was 10% more than that reported by Beijing. Their average growth rate of 13.1% was also still 1.2 percentage points higher than the revised national growth rate, although the gap has narrowed from almost three points in 2005.

Updated projection for currency, US recession and China but not with the 10% higher provincial growth numbers and the new 2007 GDP number. If growth did average 1.2% faster and US growth was weaker then China could pass the USA on an exchange rated basis in 2014. My updated likely estimate is for 2015-2018 for China’s economy to pass the USA economy. The most likely years are 2016-2017. The latest exchange rate is 6.94 [6.88 June 20, 2008] yuan to 1 USD. Key factors are the pace of change in the exchange rate, the degree to which China can maintain high growth and how fast the US economy grows. As previously noted at this site: China should maintain high growth until 2020 because of the migration of 1-2% of the population each year from rural areas to urban areas. Those people over a few years provide 4 times as much gdp per capita. This provides a boost of 3-6% to the annual growth rate.

Year GDP(yuan) GDP growth Yuan per USD China GDP China+HK/Ma US GDP 
2007 24.66      11.9%      7.3           3.38      3.7       13.8  
Jun08 26.0                 6.88          3.78      4.2            Past Germany
Oct08 26.7                 6.65          4.0       4.45
2008 27.3       10.2%      6.35          4.3       4.8       14.0 
2009 30.1        9.8%      5.62          5.4       5.9       14.2 Pass Japan
2010 33.7        9.5%      5.11          6.6       7.1       14.6
2011 37.0        9.5%      4.64          8.0       8.5       15.0
2012 40.6        9.5%      4.26          9.5       10.0      15.4
2013 44.2        9.0%      3.91         11.3      11.8       15.9
2014 48.2        9.0%      3.72         13.0      13.5       16.4
2015 52.0        8.0%      3.54         14.7      15.2       16.9
2016 56.2        8.0%      3.53         16.7      17.2       17.4 Passing USA
2017 60.4        7.5%      3.38         18.8      19.4      17.9 Past USA
2018 64.2        7.0%      3.20         20.9      21.5      18.4
2019 69.2        7.0%      3.09         23.0      23.6      19.0 
2020 74.0        7.0%      3.0          25.2      25.8      19.6
2021 78.4        6.0%      2.9          27.2      27.8      20.2
2022 83.1        6.0%      2.9          29.4      30.0      20.8
2023 87.3        5.0%      2.8          31.5      32.2      21.4
2024 91.7        5.0%      2.8          33.7      34.4      22.0
2025 96.3        5.0%      2.7          36.1      36.8      22.7
2026 101.1       5.0%      2.6          38.7      39.4      23.4 
2027 106.1       5.0%      2.6          41.4      42.1      24.1
2028 111.4       5.0%      2.5          44.4      45.1      24.8
2029 117.0       5.0%      2.5          47.5      48.2      25.5
2030 122.8       5.0%      2.4          50.9      51.6      26.3  Close to double USA

FURTHER READING
China’s economy now third largest passing Germany.

Part of the reason for China’s GDP growth, lower cost of infrastructure

China is planning to complete rebuilding from the recent earthquake within 3 years. This compares to longer timeframes for US rebuilding after the San Francisco earthquake (still working on the Bay bridge) and from Katrina. The replacement of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge appears like it will cost $6.3 billion and be completed in 2013. 24 years after the 1989 quake.

The rebuilding of damage from China’s quake will cost a lot less than repairs in the USA. $10 billion has been set aside for repairs in China.

The new Olympic stadium (the bird nest) only cost $500 million and was completed in 52 months

China has already started demolition of unsafe structures and towns.

Beijing’s new airport (the world’s largest and most advanced airport building)is larger than all five London terminals and cost an estimated $3.75 billion to construct, occupies 14 million square feet and was finished in four years. London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 took nearly 20 years to build and cost at least twice as much as the one in the Chinese capital.

Chinese and Russian officials signed a $1 billion deal Friday to have Moscow build a nuclear fuel enrichment plant in China and supply uranium.

The deal calls for Russia to build a $500 million nuclear fuel enrichment plant and supply semi-enriched uranium worth at least $500 million. Earlier this year, a Russian company completed work on two 1,000-megawatt light-water reactors for China’s Tianwan nuclear power plant south of Shanghai. China plans to build 40 plants by 2020, tripling the nuclear share of its power generation to 6 percent.

Westinghouse secured a $5.3 billion order from China National Nuclear in July to provide four AP1000 nuclear power reactors in Haiyang, Shandong Province and Sanmen, Zhejiang Province, both in eastern China. Four AP1000 in the USA for Florida Power and Light are contracted in 2008 for $13.7 billion, $2927/kw.