China: Economic indicators and trade with EU

Written by Gyorgyi Macsai (Members’ Research Service) with Raffaele Ventura (GlobalStat, EUI).

Updated on 16.11.2023.

This infographic provides an insight into the economic performance of China compared with the European Union (EU) and looks at the trade dynamics between them. China’s GDP growth per capita increased rapidly since the beginning of the series. The EU’s GDP per capita trend remained relatively stable, recording a slow but constant increase with the only exception in the years of the COVID-19 restrictions. Unemployment in China has been low and stable for the whole time series, and it never exceeded 5% of the total labour force. Conversely, public debt as a percentage of GDP has increased for both countries, but in China the trend was steeper, moving from 25.6% at the beginning of the series to 77% at the end. Trade relations between the EU and China have been characterised by a positive trend for the whole series. The EU is the leading trade partner for China and their imports and exports are in large part composed of the exchange of mechanical appliances and electrical equipment.

Read this infographic on ‘China: Economic indicators and trade with EU‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.