Widening wealth gap in China
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Geoff reported yesterday that John Humphrys of the Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme is in China this week and recommended listening out for his reports. Yesterday’s programme included a particularly interesting report into the widening wealth gap in Shanghai. China’s booming economy delivered 49 new billionaires last year alone as the country became the world’s second largest economy - where the gap between rich and poor is bigger than any other sizeable country in the world. The report opens on the floor of the stock exchange, which is not what you would expect – the trading room is open to anyone who wants to play the game of gambling on the stock market, with nurses dropping in for an hour in their lunch break, and pensioners taking their knitting with them as they sit watching the screens showing movements in the prices. This is a fascinating 10-minute report which covers everything from the risk of high inflation to unequal access to cutting edge medical facilities. It includes the dilemma for the government as they trade off the desire of workers to earn more and be able to afford the type of goods that they are making for export to richer economies against the growth of the economy, with low wages as the basis of their competitiveness, and the risk of currency and trade wars as the west seeks to protect its industries from cheap Chinese imports.
There is a longer report looking at the data behind China’s ‘economic tightrope’ here.
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