Coronavirus or not, the world’s economy remains deeply troubled – and China is the hope, not the cause
- The world should be offering China help, not criticism, because a global economy long weakened by trade wars, protectionism and credit-fuelled debt is in desperate need of continued Chinese growth
China’s contribution to global economic growth is much greater than is generally realised and those who seem to delight in finding fault with the world’s second-largest economy (over the coronavirus, for example) would do well to bear this in mind. Where China goes, we all go.
As Changyong Rhee, director of the Asia and Pacific department at the International Monetary Fund, noted recently at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo, Asia contributed 70 per cent of global growth in 2019, of which China alone accounted for 41 per cent, against India’s 13 per cent and Asean’s roughly 10 per cent. This puts the US and Europe (at around 10 per cent each) in the shade.
Standard & Poor’s chief Asia-Pacific economist Shaun Roache expects the coronavirus to slow Asian growth from 5 per cent to 4.3 per cent this year. He also said growth will drop by a percentage point or so in Hong Kong and Singapore, and by 0.5 points in Australia, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
