China, Economic Growth | featured news

Proponents of so-called "green accounting" - gathered in Rio de Janeiro this week for the Rio Earth Summit - hope that putting dollar values on resources will slam the brakes on unfettered development. A mentality of growth at any cost is already blamed for disasters like the chronic floods that hit deforested Haiti or the raging sand storms that have swept regions of China, worsening desertification.

China delivered a surprise interest rate cut on Thursday to combat faltering growth, underlining concern among policymakers worldwide that the euro area's deepening crisis is threatening the health of the global economy.

The inflation is still high, and the 10% annual growth rate of the last decade is going to wither to under 5% by 2014 or so, according to the Economist. The innovation necessary to boom a consumer economy is questionable. The state banks have probably been loaded with questionable loans.

President Obama urged other world leaders Wednesday to reduce their reliance on exports to the United States to drive their economic growth, stressing a need to resolve global imbalances such as China's huge trade surplus.

China had tried to temper expansion and the price rises that accompany excessively rapid growth.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said that China could expand social spending and pour money into strategic industries while still meeting its 8 percent economic growth target.

If China keeps up a 8.7 growth rate, it will likely replace Japan as the world’s second-largest economy this year.

Beijing has spent its way to a sugar high. Since last November, Beijing has spent perhaps as much as $900 billion--from its own funds as well as those of the larger state banks--to jump start its $4.3 trillion economy. No government can disburse that amount of cash without creating some economic activity.

China's economic growth picked up last quarter as expected as a combination of breakneck investment and buoyant bank lending more than made up for a slump in exports.