Power shift will fuel IMF restructuring

As China has started to fulfill its economic potential of the past 20 years, it has become one of the key global economic players. Its first big global contribution occurred as an exporter of manufactured products to developed countries.

From the mid-1990s, the impact of China's huge, low-cost labor force provided global consumers with a wide range of everyday items, at much lower prices. From early this century, China's global impact increased, as its demand for commodities to build its infrastructure drove large increases in raw material prices.

Higher commodity prices made an enormous difference to the external finances and wealth of many emerging countries, from Chile in South America, to the Democratic Republic of Congo in southern Africa.