Gao’s sin? Saying that China may have grown just 2% over the last two or three years, less than half the rate Xi’s government claims. The reason Gao is allegedly being silenced is for shining a brighter-than-usual spotlight on one of the biggest perception problems facing Xi’s Communist Party: that China routinely cooks the GDP books.

Thanks to the stimulus measures that buoyed economic activity in the fourth quarter, China says it met its 5% GDP growth target for 2024.

China’s economy expanded 5% in 2024, meeting the official target of “around 5%” growth after stimulus measures introduced late last year appear to be working.

China’s economy hit the government’s growth goal last year, after an 11th hour stimulus blitz combined with an export push before looming US tariffs turbocharged activity in the final quarter.

China reported its economy grew 5% in 2024 — meeting its target of around 5%. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected China's full-year GDP growth to come in at 4.9%, just shy of the official target of around 5% — which analysts had said was ambitious.

China said that its economy expanded by 5% last year, but a variety of weak signals have raised skepticism among some outside economists.

Sales of consumer goods grew a moderate 3.5 percent, while hospitality sectors continued to outperform discretionary segments such as apparel, gold and jewelry.