China is a communist nation with a socialist market economy. It is the world’s second largest economy by nominal GDP and the largest by purchasing power parity, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, given China’s tight control over disclosures of economic information and its tendency to fabricate information about its overall economic health, most question the accuracy of the IMF’s figures.
The world has changed markedly since East Asia began its remarkable developmental transition more than a half-century ago: Their development policies worked while all too often, those that followed the neo-liberal “Washington Consensus” policy prescriptions failed miserably. In the decade to come, African countries will benefit from reflecting on these successes and failures, and on what they mean for their own development strategies.
China is the world’s second largest trading nation behind the US – leading the world in exports and coming in second for imports. From 2009-2011 its trade to GDP ratio was 53.1 percent, while its trade per capita was $2,413.
Since its accession into the WTO in 2001, China‘s share in global trade has doubled – accounting for 10.38 percent of the world’s merchandise trade exports and 9.43 percent of merchandise trade imports.
India on Monday defended its lucrative and booming generic drugs industry as “safe” and “highly regulated”, after the country’s largest drug maker Ranbaxy pleaded guilty last month to U.S. criminal charges of making adulterated medicines.
In a bid to defend its generic drugs export sector, the Indian government also suggested that “vested interests” may be making up the “isolated reports” of spurious generic drugs found in global markets allegedly from India.
Since 1949, the Chinese government has been responsible for planning and managing the national economy. But it was only in 1978 – when Deng Xiaoping introduced capitalist market principles –that the Chinese economy began to show massive growth, averaging 10 percent GDP growth over the last 30 years. During that period the size of the Chinese economy has also grown by roughly 48 times, from $168.367 billion (current prices, US dollars) in 1981 to $8.227 trillion last year.
Africa will become the global engine of growth in the coming decade said Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday at the end of a three-day African development conference in Yokohama, as he unveiled a $32 billion investment package aimed at accelerating growth, sustainable development as well as poverty reduction on the continent.
China has one of the most diverse spread of industrial production in the world, fitting for a country that is called ‘The World’s Factory’. Since 1978, the nation has gradually reduced its reliance on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) – though they still account for 46 percent of China’s industrial output, down from 77.6 percent 35 years ago
China has accused the United States of “political prejudice” and “ignoring facts” after the U.S. State Department on Friday called on the Chinese government to fully account for those killed, detained, or missing in the bloody 1989 military crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square.
The U.S. call drew a hostile response from Beijing, in which the Chinese government said “a clear conclusion” has already been made regarding the Tiananmen Square protests.
China was the 18th fastest growing economy in the world in 2012, with a real GDP growth rate (constant prices, national currency) of 7.8 percent. Although the figure is its slowest growth since 1999, it is also representative of a maturing economy as it gradually transition from a developing to developed nation.
Syria is expected to top the agenda during a meeting of EU officials and Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday. Later this week, Chinese president Xi Jinping meets with Barack Obama, where the U.S. president is likely to express concern over Beijing’s role in high-tech state-sponsored cyber espionage.
Monday, June 3
The International Labour Organisation launches World of Work report.
