Expanding space for service sector will sustain economic growth

THE ADDED VALUE of the service sector in China reached 42.7 trillion yuan ($6.8 trillion) last year, accounting for 51.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, 11.1 percentage points higher than the secondary industry. The service industry contributed 58.8 percent of the country’s economic growth in 2106, 1.3 percentage points higher than 2016, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

Services are the main driving force for China’s economic growth. This is an important change that comes from the government’s unwavering efforts to deepen supply-side structural reform.

With the growth in foreign trade and investment slowing last year, the service sector’s fast growth played a leading role in the country’s 6.9 percent GDP growth last year, higher than the anticipated 6.5 percent.

It shows that the country’s economic structure is moving toward the expected goal, and the quality of the economy has been significantly improved.

The service sector’s share in GDP is an important criterion for judging the quality of a country’s economy, because a high proportion of the service sector, 70 to 80 percent in some developed countries such as the United States and Japan, shows that China still has tremendous consumption power to tap.

If the service industry has become a main growth driver, it means the economy has a solid foundation and strong risk resistance.

If the service industry’s growth momentum can be maintained, the structure of the economy will continue to be optimized, and the quality of growth will further improve.

China’s domestic market is huge, and it can provide a continuous source of endogenous impetus to economic growth. Therefore, the government needs to continue to actively promote structural supply-side reform, strengthen the independent innovation of enterprises, and stimulate the consumption vitality of urban and rural residents, to expand the space for the growth of the service industry.