Trawling around the internet today I came across an item on China Daily/Xinhua which I understand is used for official announcements in the PRC. The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced a doubling of "Per capita GNP" for the period 2000 to 2010 - what exactly does this mean? If straight forward compound interest is used then a growth rate of 7.2% for 10 years means a doubling of GNP during that period of 10 years. If growth rates of 9.5% have been achieved for the first 5 years of the 10 year period what will be the growth rate for the last 5 years? According to my simple arithmetic this is a growth rate of less that 7% p.a.

In view of the figures you have shown
you would think that at least they would try to sing the same tune at the same time. I wonder how many different departments in Beijing are producing different statistics for different officials?

Algernon

You've also got to allow for population growth in per capital GDP. If it's about 2% a year (a quick search should find the true figure) that's the difference. As population growth slows thanks to the one child policy, then your maths comes into play.

Yeah, population growth dilutes national GDP growth. i think the pop growth is closer to 1% for China. (CIA said 0.58% this year)

Also, setting the target of 2x in 10 year in rough+conservative estimate.

Deng wanted 4x from 1980 to 2000. I think it was achieved at least 5 years earlier, before Deng went to see Karl Marx.