(MENAFN- AFP) China's gross domestic product (GDP) turned out to be 3.4 percent larger last year than originally announced, the government said on Friday after a national survey -- a revision equal to about the size of Malaysia's economy.
The world's second biggest economy was valued at 58.80 trillion yuan ($9.5 trillion currently) in 2013, the National Bureau of statistics (NBS) said in a statement, quoting a survey of 70 million businesses across the country.
The amount is 1.92 trillion yuan ($308 billion) more than the official figure released in January, the NBS said.
Malaysia's GDP was $313 billion last year, according to the World Bank.
Despite the revision, China's economy is still far smaller than that of the United States, where GDP was $16.8 trillion last year, World Bank data shows.
The change was a result of China's third "national economic census", which is carried out every five years and focuses on industry and services to provide up-to-date figures for government policy making.
The latest survey was conducted from the beginning of this year for three months by three million personnel, the NBS said previously.
The bureau said in a separate statement the revision "basically will not affect" the economic growth rate for this year, which is to be released next month, because the calculation is based on "comparable data".
China's economy grew 7.3 percent in the third quarter, the slowest since the height of the global financial crisis in early 2009.
It is now facing multiple challenges including weakening manufacturing, falling property prices, high debt levels, and what some economists see a looming threat of deflation.
The government has set a target for growth this year at around 7.5 percent but it is widely expected to lower the goal for next year to as low as 7.0 percent due to slowing momentum.
China announced in January that its economy expanded by 7.7 percent last year. NBS officials told AFP that the growth rate could also be subject to change after revisions on figures between 2009 and 2012 are completed.
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