Measuring China’s economic performance

Written by Adelina Chelniciuc on December 2, 2010. Posted in Around the world, Articles, KPI

Growing China

A simple search on Google about China’s Economy will return you with a staggering number of articles compiling a great amount of information about China’s economical performance. Indeed, with its economy growing at a rate of 9% a year and a valuation of its economy at $1.33 trillion in the second quarter of 2010, it is not hard to fathom why businesses are frantically seeking opportunities to expand and tap into this enormous market that is still growing at a ridiculous rate (Phang & Thomas, 2010). Due to its incredible economical performance from the last decade, China has now become the world’s second-largest economy after United States. To many businesses this means their ticket to success!

Measuring a country’s economical performance

Talking and assessing a country economical performance only by looking at its GDP and growth rate, doesn’t always provide you with the best picture of a countries economical performance. From a performance management perspective, there are a few aspects that need to be looked into prior to deciding whether a country, in our case, China, indeed offers the best opportunities for investment and sales efforts. These include the choice of performance indicators used and the comparison targets chosen. Without these two, it will be hard to gauge how well a country is growing and how much better (or perhaps worse) that country is doing compared to other countries.

Capturing economical performance through Key Performance Indicators

A recent report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit division of The Economist (2010) provides us with an intersecting and detailed insight about China’s performance. In their analysis, the massive market of China was broken down into smaller markets based on regions and cities to facilitate a more specific and focused understanding. Several growth-related performance indicators were used to make comparison with other peer cities around the globe (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2010).

% Disposable Income

The fastest growing cities in terms of percentage growth in disposable income are Pinggingshan followed by Chongqing and Hefei, triumphing their peers in Europe and US.

% Population Growth

Amongst the compared cities, the cities with highest growth rate in terms of population are Hefei, followed by Maanshan and Pingdingshan, all within China.

% Real GDP

China cities again recorded highest growth rate in terms of Real GDP compared to peers, with Anshan toping the rankings, followed by Shenyang and Hefei.

Looking at the results of the growth-related performance indicators comparing cities in China and its peers in Europe and US, we can only arrive at one simple conclusion – From an economical perspectives cities in China are indeed growing at an incredible fast pace!

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