China Revises GDP Figure Upwards

James T. Areddy, staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal, wrote an article China Sharply Revises GDP Figure (subscription required).

SHANGHAI -- The world's fastest growing large economy, China, has just gotten nearly 17% bigger. Beijing on Tuesday said it has recalculated the size of its economic output in 2004 to better reflect the activity of consumers, as opposed to manufacturers.

The impact is that China's gross domestic product was 16.8% larger in 2004 than previously known. China, therefore, ranked as the sixth largest global economy last year instead of seventh, moving ahead of Italy but holding behind France.

Wow!