Editorials
Growing Chinese demand
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-24 07:48
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China's likely trade deficit this month may not be enough to dissuade some Western people from insisting stubbornly that trade surplus countries should be blamed for the global imbalance as well as the predicaments of highly indebted rich countries.
But the first monthly trade deficit since May 2004, according to Minister of Commerce Chen Deming on Sunday, will speak volumes about the steady growth of China's contribution to global demand.
Thanks to the strong recovery of the Chinese economy, the country's imports have been increasing more rapidly than exports, which have been affected by a drop in demand from industrialized countries.
Since a one-third drop in China's trade surplus in 2009 had failed to prevent some Westerners from making a shaky excuse to pressurize the Chinese government to revalue the yuan, it is more than likely that they will just choose to ignore China's first monthly trade deficit.
Yet, China's transition from a net exporter to a net importer will have more implications than exposing the fallacy that the country is manipulating currency to subsidize exports.
In fact, the urgent question for the world economy should be whether it is ready for the accelerated growth of China's appetite for imported goods and services.
For years, the rise of China as a global manufacturing center has largely eclipsed the steady expansion of its domestic demand. If China's appetite turns out to be bigger than the market expects, it may trigger a round of demand-driven inflation that will only make the global recovery much more complicated.
(China Daily 03/24/2010 page8)
