Initial statistics show that China's GDP reached 33.5353 trillion yuan ($4.9 trillion) in 2009, up 8.7 percent year on year, 0.9 percentage points lower than the growth rate in the previous year, said Ma Jiantang, Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics.

In face of the severe impact brought about by the worst global financial crisis in a century and complicated domestic and international situations, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council "sized up the situation, made scientific decisions and led a united nation to surmount the difficulties," Ma said at a press conference of State Council Information Office on January 21. While pursuing proactive fiscal and moderately easy monetary policies, China implemented and further improved its package plan aimed at coping with the crisis. All these helped rein in a noticeable slowdown of the Chinese economy, thereby putting the national economy on a path to recovery and sound development, he said.

In 2009, China's agriculture continued to forge ahead. Grain output increased for the sixth consecutive year, reaching 530.82 million tons, an increase of 0.4 percent over the previous year. Industry recovered quarter by quarter. Profits generated by the industrial sector started to rise after sharp declines. In 2009, added value of industrial enterprises above the designated size (enterprises with an annual turnover of more than 5 million yuan (about $735,000)) rose 11 percent year on year, 1.9 percentage points lower than the rate in 2008.

Investment continued to grow rapidly, with notable investment in areas related to people's livelihoods speeding up. Total investment in fixed assets reached 22.4846 trillion yuan ($3.3 trillion), a year-on-year growth of 30.1 percent, and 4.6 percentage points higher than the rate in 2008. Of this total, fixed asset investment in urban areas was 19.4139 trillion yuan ($2.9 trillion), up 30.5 percent, 4.4 percentage points higher in the rate in 2008; and that in rural areas was 3.0707 trillion yuan ($451.6 billion), up 27.5 percent, 6 percentage points higher.

Market sales kept growing stably and rapidly, with the sales of certain products increasing dramatically. Total sales of consumer goods reached 12.5343 trillion yuan ($1.8 trillion), a growth of 15.5 percent, or a real growth of 16.9 percent after adjusting for inflation, which was 2.1 percentage points higher than the growth rate in 2008.

Consumer prices and producer prices underwent a series of falls before picking up at the end of the year. The consumer price index (CPI) was down 0.7 percent in 2009 over the previous year. Of this total, the CPI declined 0.9 percent in cities and 0.3 percent in rural areas. The year-on-year change of the monthly CPI figures reversed from negative to positive in November to reach 0.6 percent, before further increasing to 1.9 percent in December. Producer prices for manufactured goods dropped 5.4 percent in 2009 over the previous year. But the year-on-year change of monthly figures turned from negative to positive in December, reaching 1.7 percent.

Compared to 2008, China's imports and exports declined in 2009. The country's foreign trade volume totaled $2.2073 trillion, a drop of 13.9 percent over the previous year. In November, however, year-on-year change of monthly foreign trade volumes shifted from negative to positive to reach 9.8 percent. Foreign trade continued to grow in December, with the year-on-year growth rate hitting 32.7 percent. China's exports totaled $1.2017 trillion in 2009, down 16 percent over the previous year, while its imports amounted to $1.0056 trillion, down 11.2 percent. It posted a trade surplus of $196.1 billion, $99.4 billion less than in the previous year.

The income of urban and rural residents rose steadily, and the employment situation was better than expected. The per-capita income of urban households in 2009 was 18,858 yuan ($2,773). Of this, the per-capita disposable income of urban residents was 17,175 yuan ($2,526), up 8.8 percent, or a real increase of 9.8 percent after adjusting for inflation. The per-capita net income of rural residents was 5,153 yuan ($758), up 8.2 percent over the previous year, or a real increase of 8.5 percent after adjusting for inflation. The number of newly employed people in urban areas in 2009 was 9.1 million more than in the previous year. The number of migrant workers in rural areas totaled 149 million by the year end, an increase of 1.7 million over the figure at the end of March.

The rebound of China's economy was conducive to worldwide economic recovery. An earlier UN world economy report predicted China would contribute to a staggering 50 percent of world economic growth if it achieved 8-percent economic growth in 2009.