General Economic and Financial Indicators of China

GDP - Over the past ten years, China's GDP has shown tremendous growth. Due to the current world wide economic situation, there was a slight slow down in 2008 after nine straight years of steady increases from 7.6% in 1999, to a high of 13% in 2007. This was mainly due to a decrease in foreign demand for Chinese goods. According to the New York Times in a November 2008 article, "After five years of growth in excess of 10 percent, the Chinese economy is weakening because of slowing export and investment growth." However, China's GDP remains at a very healthy 9%.

Retail Sales and Domestic Demand in China - As shown by the retail sales percentage growth figures, there was a 21.6% increase in retail sales in 2008. This occurred despite the slow down in GDP as well as in urban per capita disposable income.

In addition, a $586 billion dollar stimulus package from the government is being put in place and runs until 2010. In a May 2009 article in US News and World Repot, "China's major economic stimulus spending is not only welcome and necessary to promote Chinese domestic demand but it is already starting to work, a knowledgeable State Department official says." This indicates that this trend should continue for the foreseeable future. According to Eswar Prasad, the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University, "The Chinese have no other alternative but to boost their domestic market."