Shopping in China

With continuing concerns in the UK, USA and other European economies such as Germany, the debate rumbles on as to whether countries such as China can provide the global demand necessary to keep world economic growth strong.

This week in The Economist, From Mau to the Mall examines prospects for the Chinese economy, and in particularly the balance of imports versus exports. China’s trade surplus is legendary, but data shows that imports (demand in China) are beginning to grow faster than exports (supply from China).

The significance of all this is that although China’s headline GDP growth is widely tipped to slow to 9-10% in 2008, if a bigger chunk of this growth comes from domestic consumption and investment, then in absolute dollar terms China could well contribute more to global demand this year than in 2007.

The full article can be found here.