China in a new period of transition

Veasna Kong, Adam McKissack and Dong Zhang
Additional contact information
Veasna Kong: Treasury, Government of Australia
Adam McKissack: Treasury, Government of Australia
Dong Zhang: Treasury, Government of Australia

Economic Roundup, 2012, issue 4, 42-62

Abstract: China’s economic transformation since 1978 has been remarkable. At the commencement of the reform period, China’s per capita GDP was lower than India’s, Pakistan’s, Indonesia’s, and Thailand’s, and about 3 per cent of that of the US. Today, it is multiples above Indian, Pakistani and Indonesian levels, and equivalent to 20 per cent of that of the US. Through a process of reform and opening up, the utilisation of a vast endowment of labour, the rapid accumulation of capital and technological catch up, China has been transformed from a rural agrarian economy to an urban industrial force. However, the structural transformations associated with industrialisation are giving rise to economic challenges and pressure for policy change. Following over three decades of rapid growth, China has reached a period where a heavy reliance on investment and exports has led to the build up of a number of economic, social, and environmental challenges that need to be addressed. While there remains potential for further impressive growth, the favourable conditions that China has benefited from in the past are, in many respects, reaching their ‘use by date’. This presents a range of policy challenges for China’s incoming leadership.

Keywords: growth model; economic system; economic development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O10 O53 P20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.treasury.gov.au/~/media/Treasury/Public ... ndup-4-article2.ashx (application/pdf)
http://www.treasury.gov.au/PublicationsAndMedia/Pu ... ssue-4/HTML/article2 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tsy:journl:journl_tsy_er_2012_4_2

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economic Roundup from The Treasury, Australian Government Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by The Treasury (Commonwealth of Australia) ().