A latest report released by by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Chinese census bureau, stated that China contributed 19.2% of the world economic growth in 2007, a huge increase from the 1978 ratio of merely 2.3%. The report claimed that this figure makes China top the world in contribution to the global economic growth.

According to the NBS, China's gross domestic product (GDP) was $30 billion in 1952, more than doubling by 1960, and reached $3.86 trillion in 2008.

China had also become the world's third largest economy in 2008 by accounting for 6.4 percent of the global GDP.

Meanwhile, the country's gross national income (GNI) per capita has been catching up with the world average. The GNI per capita was 10.1 percent of the world average in 1978, and 32.3 percent in 2008.

In terms of GNI per capita ranking among 209 countries and regions by the World Bank, China was 130th in 2008 at $2,770, up 15 places compared $750 in 1997. (Source: Xinhua Financial News, 10/3/2009)