CHINA: AN INWARDLY-ANIMATED ECONOMY

The author suggests that the Chinese economy is no longer an export-driven economy but instead is driven by internal demand, which results from the rapid rate of growth over the last few years. The nearest comparison is with the development of a continental economy in the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. But the Chinese economy is growing much more rapidly than the US at that time. Crucially, massive infrastructure development and workers’ remittances back to the rural areas have transformed the economy of parts of China previously unmarked by development. As a result whole cities are growing up where not long ago there was nothing.