Which countries match the GDP, population and
exports of Chinese provinces?
China is now the world’s second-biggest economy, but some of its
provinces by themselves would rank fairly high in the global league.
Our map shows the nearest equivalent country. For example,
Guangdong's GDP (at market exchange rates) is almost as big as
Indonesia's; the output of both Jiangsu and Shandong exceeds
Switzerland’s. Some provinces may exaggerate their output: the sum
of their reported GDPs is 10% higher than the national total. But
over time the latter has consistently been revised up, suggesting
that any overstatement is modest.
What about other economic
yardsticks? Guangdong exports as much as South Korea, Jiangsu as
much as Taiwan. Shanghai’s GDP per person is as high as Saudi
Arabia’s (at purchasing-power parity), though still well below that
in China’s special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau. At
the other extreme, the poorest province, Guizhou, has an income per
head close to that of India. Note that these figures use the same
PPP conversion rate for the whole of China, but prices are likely to
be lower in poorer provinces than in richer ones, slightly reducing
regional inequality.
Correction, February 25th: The original figure
given for Hong Kong's exports included re-exports. This has been
changed to refer to domestic exports only.