Bangkok Post : China now third largest economy

China now third largest economy

By: AFP

Published: 14/01/2009 at 06:11 PM

Beijing - China upwardly revised its 2007 growth figures Wednesday, indicating the Asian giant overtook Germany as the world's third largest economy, analysts said.

China's economy expanded by 13.0 percent in 2007, up from a previous calculation of 11.9 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

The economy was worth 25.7 trillion yuan in 2007, the statistics bureau said, or about 3.5 trillion dollars based on the exchange rate at the end of that year.

"At market exchange rates, China in 2007 was the third largest behind the US and Japan," said Vivek Arora, senior resident representative with the IMF in Beijing, told Dow Jones Newswires.

"It indicates the speed of economic growth in the year was beyond what people previously imagined. The economy was overheated beyond what people estimated," said Ren Xianfang, a Beijing-based analyst with Global Insight.

"The figures here mean China has surpassed Germany," she said, citing World Bank estimates. "Germany's economy was 3.3 trillion dollars in 2007 while China's economy was much bigger than that."

China is now only behind the United States, whose economy was worth 13.8 trillion in 2007, and Japan, at 4.4 trillion, according to World Bank figures.

China became the fourth largest economy in 2005, when it grew 10.4 percent, speeding past France, Britain and Italy.

The revision put the 2007 economic growth second only to the 13.1 percent growth seen in 1994, Ren said.

But the revised figures could serve only to make the slowdown between 2007 and 2008 appear sharper, economists said.

"The change in GDP estimates for two years ago will not alter the economy's near-term outlook," said Sherman Chan, an economist with Moody's Economy.com.

"The only effect is perhaps negative, as a stronger 2007 would make the 2008 slowdown more upsetting," she wrote in a research note.

China is expected to release its full-year economic figures for 2008 next week.

The Chinese economy grew by nine percent in the third quarter, the lowest rate in over five years, and the World Bank has forecast 2008 growth of 7.5 percent, a level not seen since 1990.

"For 2009, a further slowdown is projected, as the global economy remains in a dismal state, hurting China's export-related businesses, which have been the bread winner for the country," Chan said.

The bureau said this was the final revision for 2007 economic numbers, after reporting in January last year that growth was 11.4 percent, then upgrading it to 11.9 percent in April.

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kiasi

Discussion 6 : 15/01/2009 at 02:56 PM6
Do communism work? I say it does not necessarily work. It depends who's in charge and the kind of people who runs the country. It does not matter so much the political system. Look around the world, how many so-called demcratic governments are competent and give its people good governance and improve the lives of its people? I risk quoting a great head of a great country: It does not matter what the color of the cat, as long as it catches the most mice.
Why the economy is so big, how come there are so many poor people? The answer is very simple. If your family is so big, your parents will have a very hard time working overtime to feed so many mouths.
Kiasi

Discussion 5 : 15/01/2009 at 02:42 PM5
I agree with Mr Kiasu.
What's the point of being so-called democracy, when the people who get elected are always corrupt, incompetent or just plain power-hungry bent on killing their opponents. The politicians just talk and talk, empty promises, but do nothing for the people who elected them. They fight, and scuffle in their parliament meetings or in their house of congress. Is this kind of behaviour what you call democracy, or is it democrazy? After a so-called democratic election, the opposition and the courts decided that it is undemocratically elected or is declared illegal for some other crazy excuses by the supreme court. Then you have another election, or the opposition that lose the election is now declared as the newly appointed government! You call that democracy? How about the opposition not satisfied that they lost the election and organize a nation-wide demonstration to overthrow the democratically elected government. They police and the army just stood by doing nothing to stop the illegal demonstration and rioting that cripples the entire country. Do you want this kind of democracy? Sadly this is the kind of liberal democrazy advocated by western governments and their human rights supporters.
md3

Discussion 4 : 15/01/2009 at 10:29 AM4
'Freedom or money ?'
Clearly, the author had never lived in China for some extend period (at least 1 year) in the past ten years.

'If the economy is so big, how come there are so many poor people?'
Obviously, the author is missing one important point:
The poverty rate counts, not the absolute numbers. For China, with 1.3 billion people, even the poverty rate is 1%, the absolute number will be 13 million. For comparison, the population of Malaysia is about 25 million.
Key

Discussion 3 : 15/01/2009 at 09:21 AM3
Freedom or money ?

I prefer freedom than live as a robot. In china you press is controlled and you are arrested if talk bad about government. No human rights and slave work as common at China. Here in Thailand is not so different. You don't have freedom to say what think about royal family and the press is controlled too.

For people who are in control it's wonderful.. you have money and power to do everything..but for the rest of us...
Kiasu

Discussion 2 : 15/01/2009 at 06:10 AM2
Communisim in China virtually ended when it open its doors 3 decades ago.

The Chinese government is doing a great job in raising the standard of living and economy of the country through strong management skills and stability. Which is something many of its "Decomcratic" Asian neighbours including Thailand lack unfortunately.

Having lived in Australia for 20 years I can tell you that democracy is only good IF it is properly established. It doesn't matter if a country is democratic if it has a lousy government or parties, because at the end of the day you are just having the freedom to choose another lousy government. Freedom of speech is great but raising the living standards of the population should always take precendence first.

In terms of poor people in China, that will and is gradually improving. Afterall you are talking about a country with 1.4 billion people with a net growth in population of 17 million per year. Let's see how many governments in the world can manage that properly and be where China is now today.
TOOMY

Discussion 1 : 15/01/2009 at 05:29 AM1
So does that mean communism work?

If the economy is so big, how come there are so many poor people?

Bangkok Post : China now third largest economy

China now third largest economy

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