Beijing's GDP Would Be #35 Worldwide if Analyzed as a Country

How big is Beijing's municipal economy? Absolutely f*cking huge. In fact, if Beijing's municipal economy were classified as a country, it's economy would be the 35th largest in the whole world based on its GDP, according to 2014 municipal economic report released last month.

With a GDP of USD 347 billion in 2014, Beijing's municipal economy is roughly the size of South Africa's; almost twice that of New Zealand; more than twice of Ukraine, Vietnam and Bangladesh; and six times larger than Kenya.

Nevertheless, Beijing still trails Shanghai, which retains its title as China’s largest municipal economy. Following Shanghai and Beijing on the list are Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Chongqing, Suzhou, Wuhan, and Chengdu.

Beijing's GDP per capita was USD 16,150 in 2014. This would make Beijing the 67th in the world based on GDP per capita, behind powerhouses such as Uruguay and Botswana, right above Lebanon and Turkey.

However, Beijing still has a chance to catch-up with its archnemisis Shanghai as its growth rate, 7.3 percent, is slightly higher than Shanghai’s, which is 7.0 percent. Neither of these places are the fastest growing areas of China though, that accolade goes to Guiyang, where the growth rate shot up to 13.9 percent in 2014. Dare we say it: guess there wasn't very much to start with.
 

The report also showed that Beijing has evolved into a post-industrial economy where 78 percent of the GDP comes from non-manufacturing industries – such as the service industry and IT.  Manufacturing and construction combined to form 22 percent of the economy, while agriculture and mining represented less than 1 percent of the economy.

As a result, however, on a more important note: prices are also on the rise in Beijing, increasing 1.6 percent in 2014, with food prices increasing the most (3.2 percent), while housing went up 1.4 percent, and surprisingly, transportation and communication prices actually decreased by 0.8 percent.

Roughly 40 percent of the city's 21.5 million people did not hold a Beijing hukou, but maybe will in the near future, as Tongzhou District becomes the first region in Beijing to pilot a scheme by which outsiders can earn points that add up to the permission to live in the city with a hukou. We bet CCTV is jumping at the chance to turn that into a reality TV show.

Source: Wikipedia