China rises above recession, inviting Scrutiny

Please note that the headline above is from the print edition–KSH.

As much of the world struggles to clamber out of a serious recession, a gradual flow of economic power from West to East has turned into a flood.

New high points, it seems, are reached daily. China surged past the United States to become the world’s largest automobile market ”” in units, if not in dollars, figures released Monday show. It also toppled Germany as the biggest exporter of manufactured goods, according to year-end trade data. World Bank estimates suggest that China ”” the world’s fifth-largest economy four years ago ”” will shortly overtake Japan to claim the No. 2 spot.

The shift of economic gravity to China has occurred partly because growth here remained robust even as the world’s developed economies suffered the steepest drop in trade and economic output in decades.

But that did not happen by chance: China’s decisive government intervention in the economy, combined with the defiant optimism of its companies and consumers, has propelled an economy that until recently had seemed tethered to the health of its major export markets, including the United States.

Read it all.

print

Posted in * Economics, Politics, * International News & Commentary, Asia, China, Economy, The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007--