Thanks to the stimulus measures that buoyed economic activity in the fourth quarter, China says it met its 5% GDP growth target for 2024.

Retail sales, a key measurement of consumer spending, increased 3.7 percent year-on-year in December, compared with the 3 percent growth recorded a month earlier. China's fixed-asset investment rose 3.2 percent in 2024, and in the first 11 months it grew 3.3 percent.

Gao’s sin? Saying that China may have grown just 2% over the last two or three years, less than half the rate Xi’s government claims. The reason Gao is allegedly being silenced is for shining a brighter-than-usual spotlight on one of the biggest perception problems facing Xi’s Communist Party: that China routinely cooks the GDP books.

The National Bureau of Statistics published GDP and population numbers for 2024, data that will inform policy decisions for the year ahead.

China's economy ended 2024 on better footing than expected helped by a flurry of stimulus measures, although the threat of a new trade war with the United States and weak domestic demand could hurt confidence in a broader recovery this year.

China’s economy grew more than expected in the last three months of 2024, official data showed on Friday, as it awaits the likely imposition of fresh tariffs by US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next week.

China’s economy hit the government’s growth goal last year after an 11th hour stimulus blitz and export boom turbocharged activity, although looming US tariffs threaten to take away a key driver of expansion.