China takes up 9.5 pct of world GDP in 2010

By Kim Young-gyo
HONG KONG, March 25 (Yonhap) -- China's gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for 9.5 percent of the global total in 2010, almost twice as much as five years earlier, the Chinese government said Friday.
The percentage was up from 5 percent in 2005, and China's GDP amounted to 40.2 percent of that of the United States, compared with 17.9 percent in 2005, China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its Web site.
China's GDP, or the total value of goods and services produced in an economy, came to US$5.88 trillion last year, compared with $14.6 trillion for the U.S.
The bureau, however, said China's per capita GDP was still at the level of medium-income countries.
Experts estimate that China's per capita GDP reached US$3,400 by the end of 2010. The U.S. per capita GDP is estimated at $47,400, more than 10 times larger.
Meanwhile, China's overseas direct investment made up about 5.1 percent of the world's total, up from 1.4 percent in 2005, the NBS said.
The country's overseas investment reached $59 billion last year, an increase of 380 percent from a year earlier.
ygkim@yna.co.kr