GDP up 8.1% in 2021 China’s economy posted stable growth in 2021 despite challenges including sporadic epidemic resurgences and a complicated external environment. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 8.1 percent year on year to 114.37 trillion yuan (US$18 trillion) last year, putting the two-year average growth at 5.1 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Final consumption contributed 65.4 percent to the GDP expansion, while net exports contributed 20.9 percent. The country’s job market remained generally stable, with the surveyed urban unemployment rate standing at 5.1 percent, 0.5 percentage points lower than the same period in the previous year. The per capita disposable income stood at 35,128 yuan, up 9.1 percent year on year in nominal terms. Population growth China’s population on the mainland has grown to 1.4126 billion by the end of last year, increasing by 480,000 compared with the end of 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. The figure does not include Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents and foreigners who live on the mainland. The number of newborns in 2021 stood at 10.62 million, with the birth rate at 7.52 thousandths. The number of newborns on the mainland has been dropping for five consecutive years since 2017, after the figure reached 18.83 million in 2016. COVID test for Beijing Beijing will require nucleic acid tests within 72 hours of entry into the city, in a move to step up COVID-19 prevention after the city reported its first local Omicron case on Saturday. The policy will start on January 22 and last through the end of March, covering the Chinese New Year holiday season and the city’s Winter Olympics. The Omicron carrier who lives and works in Beijing’s Haidian District twice underwent nucleic acid testing twice and tested positive both times. Beijing has ruled out the risk of COVID-19 hotspots in connection with the Omicron case as test results of all related risky places came back negative. Diabetics drug prices Starting from May, diabetes patients in China will enjoy an average 48 percent drop in their medicine costs. The price cut will be effective on about 40 commonly used insulin products selected by the country’s centralized drug procurement program in November. The bulk-buying mechanism has so far benefited patients with hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, chronic hepatitis B, and other chronic or common diseases, with an average drug price cut of 53 percent. It had saved an estimated 260 billion yuan (US$40.84 billion) in medicine costs by the end of last year. (Xinhua) | 