Official data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2025, China's "three new" economy—encompassing new industries, new business models, and new commercial forms—recorded a value-added output of 257,869 billion yuan. This represents a 6.2% increase year-on-year at current prices, outpacing the nominal GDP growth rate by 2.2 percentage points.
The "three new" economy's contribution to GDP has been steadily climbing, rising from 15.7% in 2017 to 18.39% in 2025. Wei Qijia, a researcher at the State Information Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, attributes this growth to the orderly shift between old and new growth drivers, alongside China's long-standing commitment to developing the real economy. He notes that prioritizing the real economy and facilitating the transition of growth drivers has provided ample space for the "three new" economy to expand, maintaining stable growth amid structural adjustments and injecting continuous vitality into high-quality development.
Breaking down the "three new" economy by sector in 2025, the primary industry contributed 9,865 billion yuan, up 4% year-on-year, accounting for 3.8% of the total. The secondary industry added 106,304 billion yuan, a 5.8% increase, representing 41.2% of the share. The tertiary industry contributed 141,700 billion yuan, growing 6.6% and holding a 55% share. Wei Qijia emphasizes that the "three new" economy enables emerging technologies to quickly find practical applications, accelerating the transformation of scientific achievements into productive forces. This process also fosters collaborative innovation across industry supply chains, driving the entire industrial system toward smarter, greener, and more integrated operations.
From an employment perspective, the "three new" economy has created new job opportunities, spawning numerous flexible employment forms that broaden income channels for workers. This has further stimulated the domestic consumer market, providing a new growth point for expanding domestic demand. Additionally, the stable growth of this sector helps buffer economic cyclical fluctuations and stabilize the overall economy, reinforcing the gains from ongoing transformation and bolstering economic resilience and potential.
The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, at its meeting on July 30, called for accelerating the transition between old and new growth drivers. Wei Qijia suggests integrating the promotion of the "three new" economy with the broader push for this transition, focusing on "convergence points" and "linkages." Specific measures include: first, employing multiple strategies to guide traditional industries in accelerating their transformation through technological upgrades and other channels; second, cultivating sufficient new scenarios to match supply and demand dynamically; third, establishing flexible and prudent regulatory rules tailored to the cross-sector and diverse nature of the "three new" economy, while upholding security boundaries; and fourth, strengthening factor support by increasing investment in emerging technology research and development, and smoothing the flow of talent, capital, and other resources into "three new" economy sectors to provide ample nourishment for innovation activities.
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