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This is the Beijing Hour, one hour of news and information brought to you every weekday.
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Hello with you on this Friday, January 17, 2025.
You're listening to the Beijing Hour coming to you live from the Chinese capital.
On today's program, China's economy expanded by 5% in 2024, meeting its growth target.
Disaster relief ran smoothly in Shidzhan after the deadly earthquake last week.
The Israeli government has postponed a vote on the ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas due to divisions among ministers.
In business, experts say the influx of TikTok users offers Chinese brands opportunities to expand and global reach.
In sports, updates on Chinese players performance at the Australian Open.
In culture and entertainment, the Chinese opera gala for this year's Spring festival.
Now checking today's top stories.
Officials say China achieved its major economic and social development targets for 2024 despite mounting external pressure and domestic difficulties.
The country's gross domestic product grew 5% last year to reach a record of more than 130 trillion yuan, or US$18 trillion, meeting the annual target of around 5%.
Biran has more According to the officials, China's company witnessed a steady growth and stability with major development targets achieved in the past year.
And according to a preliminary estimate, China's GDP in 2024 was around 134tr trillion yen, approximately 18 trillion USD with an increase of 5% year on year, meeting the annual target of around 5%.
And by sectors, the primary industry was up 3.5% compared to 2023 and the secondary industry increased by 5.3% and the treasury industry was up by 5% and officials introduced that in the in the first quarter, China's economy had a good start, but in the second and the third quarter the government saw challeng changes and implemented a series of measures to spur the consumption, production and market growth.
So the number shows that economy grew 5.4% in the first quarter from a year earlier in 2020 for the largest expansion since the second quarter of 2023.
And high quality develop development was advanced in 2024, but according to officials, challenges remain due to the external environment, insufficient domestic demands, enterprise difficulties in production and operation.