China's 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) is coming to an end. What economic progress has the country made over the past five years? China's overall economic development reached a new level. Gross domestic product (GDP) totaled 99.1 trillion yuan (about 14.89 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2019, accounting for 16 percent of the global economy and contributing about 30 percent to world economic growth. The per capita GDP in 2019 reached 10,276 U.S. dollars, exceeding the 10,000-dollar mark for the first time. Over the past five years, more than 60 million new jobs were created in urban areas, and the labor participation and employment rates have maintained a relatively high level among major economies. From 2016 to 2019, more than 50 million poor people in rural areas shook off poverty. Meanwhile, the per capita net income of the poor rose from 3,416 yuan in 2015 to 9,808 yuan in 2019, an average annual growth of 30.2 percent. China's per capita disposable income stood at 30,733 yuan in 2019, an increase of 39.9 percent over 2015, and the size of the middle-income group continued to expand during the period.
