From Finance and Development, a quarterly magazine of the International Monetary Fund:
China’s emergence as an economic power and its sheer size have put it firmly at the center of the global economic stage. Its remarkable pace of growth has attracted a lot of attention, with some observers speculating that it could become the world’s second-largest economy if this rate of growth were to be sustained for the next two or three decades. Furthermore, in light of China’s trade expansion and rapidly rising stock of international reserves, discussions of global current account imbalances invariably put the spotlight on Beijing. At the same time, the possibilities of overheating and excessive investment in China are raising concerns, because a downturn in its growth could reverberate not just domestically but also in the Asian region and beyond.
