China's 3.5-percent primary industry GDP growth was a little more than half the reported overall GDP growth of 6.6 percent. The primary industry share of China's GDP fell to 7.2 percent. The rural population of 564 million represented 40.4 percent of the national population.
China's grain output fell -0.6 percent to reach 657.89 million metric tons (mmt) in 2018. Fall grain (including corn, fall-harvested rice, soybeans) output was up slightly by 0.1 percent, but summer grain (mainly wheat) was down -2.1 percent and early rice was down -4.3 percent. Cotton output rose 7.8 percent.
| China 2018 agricultural output | ||
| Item |
2018 output
|
Change from
2017
|
Million metric tons
|
Percent
|
|
| Grain output | 657.89 | -0.6 |
| Summer grains | 138.78 | -2.1 |
| Early rice | 28.59 | -4.3 |
| Fall grains | 490.52 | 0.1 |
| Cotton output | 6.1 | 7.8 |
| Meat output | 85.17 | -0.3 |
| Pork | 54.04 | -0.9 |
| Beef | 6.44 | 1.5 |
| Mutton | 4.75 | 0.8 |
| Poultry meat | 19.94 | 0.6 |
| Hog slaughter | 693.82 | -1.2 |
| Egg output | 31.28 | 1.0 |
| Milk output | 30.75 | 1.2 |
| Million head | ||
| Hog inventory | 428.17 | -3.0 |
Meat output fell -0.3 percent, which mainly reflected a -0.9 percent decrease in pork production. Slaughter of hogs was down -1.2 percent, and the inventory of hogs at the end of the year was down -3 percent. Poultry output rose 0.6 percent, mutton was up 0.8 percent, and beef was up 1.5 percent. Egg production rose 1 percent and milk production was up 1.2 percent.
China's overall Consumer Price Index (CPI) was up 2.1 percent, slightly faster than the 1.9-percent rise in the food, alcohol and tobacco component of CPI. This reflected a slight increase in consumer prices of grain (+.8 percent), a big drop (-8.1 percent) in consumer prices of pork, and a big increase (+7.1 percent) in consumer prices of vegetables.
Farm producer prices increased 1.2 percent overall during 2018. Wheat and rice prices each changed by less than 1 percent, but corn prices rose 5.1 percent. Oilseed and sugar prices fell slightly, but producer prices for vegetables were up 3.6 percent.
Hog prices plummeted -14.4 percent, but prices increased rapidly for other types of livestock. Double-digit price increases were posted for eggs and sheep. Farm prices for poultry were up 7.7 percent and cattle prices were up 4.9 percent.
| China Farm Producer Price Index, 2018 (previous year=100) | |
| Item |
Percent
|
| All farm products | 1.2 |
| Cereals | 2.3 |
| Wheat | 0.1 |
| Rice | -0.3 |
| Corn | 5.1 |
| Oilseeds | -0.9 |
| Sugar crops | -1.2 |
| Vegetables | 3.6 |
| Fruit | 1.1 |
| Tea | 0.4 |
| Livestock | -4.4 |
| Hogs | -14.4 |
| Cattle | 4.9 |
| Sheep | 14.7 |
| Poultry | 7.7 |
| Eggs | 17.6 |
| Fish and shellfish | 2.6 |
The value of retail food sales somehow increased 8.9 percent.
Nonfarm employment of rural residents was estimated at 288.36 million in 2018, up 1.84 million (0.6 percent) from 2017. Most of those rural employees (172.66 million) worked outside their home district, while the rest (115.7 million) worked near home. Monthly income for these rural workers averaged 3,721 yuan (about $540), up 6.8 percent from the previous year.
China's urban population rose by 17.9 billion during 2018 while the rural population fell -12.6 million. The 5.3-billion difference reflects natural increase (births exceeded deaths). The number of rural people employed away from their home district increased by only 863,300.
In a seemingly implausible result, per capita rural household income rose 8.6 percent--faster than GDP growth (+6.6 percent) and faster than urban household income (+7.8 percent). Such fast growth in rural income seems inconsistent with 3.5-percent primary-sector GDP growth, 0.6-percent growth in the number of rural nonfarm workers, and 6.8-percent growth in average earnings from nonfarm employment by rural people.
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