BEIJING - China's economy maintained an average annual growth rate of 5.5 percent from 2021 to 2024, with domestic demand contributing an average of 86.4 percent to overall economic growth, an official told a press conference on Wednesday.

During the period, consumption contributed an average of 56.2 percent to China's economic growth, an increase of 8.6 percentage points compared to the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), said Yuan Da, secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Yuan, together with Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Li Chunlin, deputy director of the NDRC, and Zhou Haibing, deputy director of the NDRC, presented achievements in social and economic development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) and answered questions from the media.

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Foreign direct investment

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China totaled 4.7 trillion yuan ($657 billion) from 2021 through May 2025, said Zhou, deputy head of the NDRC.

The figure surpassed the total amount recorded during the entire 13th Five-Year Plan period, the official added.

Urban jobs

Meanwhile, Zhou said China has added more than 12 million new urban jobs each year since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

The figure indicates relatively sufficient employment in a developing country with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, he added.

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World's top manufacturer

Zheng, the head of the NDRC, said China has remained the world's largest manufacturing country for 15 consecutive years.

Since 2021, the country's manufacturing industry has seen its added value increase by over 30 trillion yuan every year, with the output of more than 220 key industrial products leading the world, the official said.

Energy consumption

China's energy consumption per unit of GDP decreased by 11.6 percent in the first four years of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the head of the NDRC said.

This reduction is equivalent to cutting 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, nearly 50 percent of the European Union's total carbon emissions in 2024, according to Zheng.

"China's actions fully demonstrate the responsibility of a major country," Zheng said.  

Economic increment

The NDRC's head also pointed out that China's economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, with its economic increment projected to exceed 35 trillion yuan.

Over the first four years of the period, the economy expanded at an average annual growth rate of 5.5 percent, he added.

Despite the shocks of the pandemic and trade bullying, China's growth is an unprecedented achievement given its vast economic scale, Zheng said.

Highlighting the great economic dynamism, Zheng said the country's total R&D expenditure surged nearly 50 percent, or 1.2 trillion yuan, from 2020 to 2024, and the number of registered private enterprises surpassed 58 million at the end of May 2025, over 40 percent higher than 2020.

Marine economy

The total value of China's marine economy surpassed 10 trillion yuan in 2024 - a first in the country's history, the NDRC's head said.

Last year, China's shipping volume and container throughput accounted for about one-third of the global total, while its market share in vessels and offshore engineering equipment exceeded 50 percent worldwide, the official said.

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Additionally, the country's marine aquaculture output has led the world for several consecutive years, Zheng added.