Macroeconomics and Agricultural Output in China

The People’s Republic of China, located in East Asia, is the world’s largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) and the second largest in terms of the official exchange rate. With a total territory of almost 9.6 million square kilometers, China is slightly smaller than the United States and the fourth largest country in the world. Geographically, the country is dominated by a diverse terrain that features mountain ranges, the Gobi desert, plateaus, plains, river deltas, and 14.500 kilometers of coastline. Likewise, China has a wide range of climates that range from subarctic to tropical. Today, the country has a total population of approximately 1.4 billion citizens, making it the most populous country in the world. Furthermore, China’s population is, on average, 37 years old and about 59% live in an urban setting, notably the capital city of Beijing with some 19.6 million inhabitants.

Macroeconomics and Agricultural Output in China

Currently, the country’s national annual gross domestic product (GDP) is US$23.2 trillion (PPP) and has experienced positive economic growth upwards of 6.7% in recent years. The Chinese economy is divided into 8% agriculture, 40% manufacturing, and 52% services. Similarly, the national agriculture industry only utilizes about 55% of the national territory, while another 22% is forested. In terms of natural resources, China has coal, iron, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower potential, and arable land. Within manufacturing, the national industry is focused on ore processing, such as iron, steel, and coal, as well as the production of machinery, armaments, textiles, apparel, fuels, cement, chemicals, food processing, transportation equipment, telecommunications equipment, and satellites. Meanwhile, the country’s agricultural industry has as main products rice, wheat, potatoes, corn, tobacco, peanuts, tea, apples, cotton, pork, mutton, eggs, fish, and shrimp.

In terms of trade, China is the world’s largest export economy. During 2016, the country imported US$1.23 trillion worth of goods and exported US$2.27 trillion, resulting in a trade surplus of US$1 trillion. Furthermore, that same year, China’s main export, representing 7.6% or US$173 billion of the country’s total, were computers. On the other hand, the country’s main import, representing 8.2% or US$102 billion of all international purchases, consisted of crude petroleum. Meanwhile, China’s main trading partners are the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union, notably Germany.

Unfortunately, in China, some 123.5 million people suffer from undernourishment. In recent years, the average per capita protein intake of animal origin amongst the Chinese population has been 38 grams daily. Simultaneously, land distribution and output in China have evolved throughout the last half century. Back in 1961, permanent pastures and meadows in the country covered 238 million hectares, while arable land covered 102.6 million hectares and permanent crops covered 1.75 million hectares. More recently, by 2015, permanent pastures and meadows had increased to cover 392.8 million hectares, while arable land represented 119 million hectares and permanent crops accounted for 16 million hectares.

(Read more about Growing Synergies between Asia and Latin America)