China’s Economy over the Last Ten Years.docVIP

China?s Economy over the Last Ten Years CHINA is approaching its once-in-a- decade change in president and government. It?s a good time to pause and reflect on the last 10 years of China?s economic performance. The data for 2012 is still being produced, so our decade has to be 2001-2011. This doesn?t give us a precise overlap with the country?s politics – 2001 was the final year of the previous administration, but that is a statistical quibble; nine tenths of the period was under the present government. Some statistics over the 10-year period are well known. China became the world?s second largest economy and the world?s largest goods exporter. These feats are undoubtedly impressive, but in actual fact they underestimate the scale of China?s true economic achievements. The last decade can be summed up by two impressive facts that put all other economic data in context: · In the last decade China experienced the fastest growth in GDP per capita of any major economy in human history. · Translating this growth into a measure of living standards, in the last 10 years China has experienced by far the fastest growth in consumption of any major economy. These are really quite outstanding achievements, and so it?s worth looking at the data in detail. China?s annual average GDP growth over the last decade was 9.9 percent, and the total increase in GDP per capita was 158 percent. Examining World Bank data, and Angus Maddison?s standard reference work World Population, GDP and GDP Per Capita, 1-2006 AD for earlier timeframes, this makes China?s the fastest growth ever recorded by a major economy. This figure is all the more extraordinary when we take into account that the period includes 2008-2011, which saw the most serious international economic crisis for 80 years. In terms of contemporary economic comparisons, no other major economy remotely approaches the scale of China?s economic growth during this 10-year period. The data for the largest G7 economies