China's economy set for long-term growth despite hurdles

It is bolstered by continued urbanisation that is boosting domestic consumption.

August 04, 2011 11:11 pm | Updated 11:11 pm IST

FAST TRACK: A medium enterprise unit in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.

FAST TRACK: A medium enterprise unit in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.

A slew of data seems to reinforce evidence that China's economy is slowing gently, prompting some observers to predict a “turning point” in the world's second largest economy which has enjoyed nearly double-digit growth over the past three decades.

Growth in China's manufacturing activity slowed for the fourth straight month in July, as the purchasing managers' index (PMI), which previews business conditions in factories, dipped to a 29-month low at 50.7, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) said on August 1.

Growth in China's gross domestic product (GDP) slowed to 9.5 per cent in the three months ending in June, slightly down from the previous quarter's 9.7 per cent, and 2010's fourth quarter's 9.8 per cent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said last month.

However, analysts said the GDP growth was still strong enough to ease fears of a hard landing, and the slight easing was an intended result of the country's economic restructuring which aims to shift the economy to a more balanced growth pattern from the current investment-led one.

Bolstered by continued urbanisation which boosts domestic consumption, China's economic boom will continue, economists told Xinhua, while calling for substantial steps to reduce the economy's excessive dependence on investment.

Growth pattern problems

Investment contributed to 53.2 per cent of the country's GDP growth in the first half of this year, according to the NBS. A number of local officials have told Xinhua, on condition of anonymity, that investment was behind at least 70 per cent of local GDP growth in the western regions.

The potential financial risks of this growth pattern are huge. China's first audit of local government debt found liabilities of about 10.7 trillion yuan ($1.7 trillion) at the end of last year, sounding the alarm of repayment risks, as this is equal to one-fourth of the country's GDP and higher than its fiscal revenue in 2010.

Analysts have said the risks had been overstated given China's sound fiscal conditions and nearly $3.2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves. Yet, investment cannot keep growing at the current pace for ever, leaving a question mark as to what will take the place of investment to pump up China's economy

Domestic consumption

Domestic consumption, represented by long lines of cars crawling along city streets and crowded shopping malls, could offer some help.

But the country's social security net needs to be rebuilt to dispel consumer worries about healthcare and post-retirement life that have kept them from spending more.

The average saving rate for Chinese urban households has doubled in recent years, rising from 15 per cent in the early 1990s to 30 per cent in 2009, according to a report released by the International Monetary Fund last year.

It is also evident that exports can no longer boost the economy as before, as a rising renminbi and soaring raw material prices and labour costs make it difficult for Chinese exporters to compete like they once did.

China's exports grew 17.9 per cent year on year in June after rising 19.4 per cent in May, 29.9 percent in April and 35.8 per cent in March, the State Administration of Customs said last month. For the first half of this year, foreign trade contributed negative 0.7 per cent to GDP growth, according to the NBS

Urban hopes

Some economists have pointed to relentless urbanisation as a long-term source for resilient growth of China's economy.

About 170 million people have moved to Chinese cities from the country's rural areas over the last 10 years, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) last year. Over the next 20 years, some 360 million people will move from the countryside to cities, and that provides a powerful source for demand, before China's urbanisation rate reaches the 70 per cent seen in many developed countries.

In the five years from 2011 to 2015 alone, China aims to lift the proportion of urban residents of its total population from the current 49.7 per cent to 51.5 per cent, according to the 12th Five-Year Plan.

Li Lijuan, from the rural area near Xining, capital city of the western Qinghai Province, is just one of those waiting to become an urban dweller. Li, who works for Qinghai YIJIA Buhala Group, the world's largest producer of Muslim caps, not far from downtown Xining, said she earned about 2,300 yuan per month on average, and the company paid her pension and medical insurance fees.

After working for two months in the company as an operator of a large-scale digital embroidery machine, the 20-year-old girl spent 1,200 yuan buying a touch-screen cell phone and sent her mother another 2,000 yuan to buy a washing machine.

“If everything goes well, I hope I can settle down downtown together with my boyfriend,” she said.

Ma Hongxiong, vice-general manager of the YIJIA Buhala Group, said there were more than 3,000 young people like Li from the neighbouring rural areas working in the company.

Wang Jun, deputy head of the consultancy and research department of the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), said the 360 million people expected to become city dwellers in the next two decades would serve as a strong drive for expansion in both investment and consumption.

“The urbanisation process first represents a strong demand for investment in infrastructure building and basic public services,” Wang said. China is on the way to building 36 million units of affordable housing and expanding the coverage of its pension and medical insurance programmes in the next five years, which will most likely be a major boon for the economy in terms of investment growth.

In the meantime, the large number of farmers who would become city dwellers should also boost domestic consumption, a more reliable and sustainable engine for growth than exports or investment, Wang said.

In China, urbanisation would also help narrow the wealth gap between different people and regions, a catching-up process set to release strong potentials for growth, Wang said.

Institutional reform

Undoubtedly, urbanisation provides the potential for long-term growth, but the key to this is to focus on how this potential can be realised.

“Only when it is accompanied by institutional reforms can long-term growth happen,” said Wang, who identified changing the criterion, by which the performance of government officials are assessed, as a key.

Echoing Wang, Cheng Enfu, a senior researcher with the CASS, said, “China needs to go beyond past economic reforms.” To guarantee its future economic growth, China must root out blind enthusiasm by local government officials for GDP growth through changing the way of assessing their performance, said Cheng.

According to the 12th Five-Year Plan, the performance of government officials would be evaluated by a comprehensive criterion which gives greater weightage to improving living standards, building affordable housing, and cutting carbon emissions, among other things.

Take the north-western Gansu Province as an example, in assessing the performance of Party and government officials in 14 cities and prefectures. Here, the “social development index” outweighs “economic development index” by 51 to 25 per cent.

Cheng also said concrete measures must be taken to destroy bottlenecks hindering the growth of private businesses, and create a level playing field for them to compete with State-owned enterprises which have easier access to bank loans and are often criticised as being less efficient. — Xinhua

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.