global

The new Global Monitoring Report 2008 is warning that most countries are likely to fall short on the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which have a due date of 2015.  World Bank president Bob Zoellick stresses that eradicating extreme poverty and hunger (Goal 1) is fundamental to making progress on additional goals like reducing child mortality.  This graph shows the actual as well as projected decline in the population of people living on $1 a day in the world's regions, including East Asia and the Pacific.

The year 2007 was an important milestone in modern economic history.  While the U.S. grew well, China contributed more to global GDP growth than the U.S. did.  That pattern is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.  Roughly speaking, the U.S. economy is about four times the size of China’s.  If the U.S. grows at 2% -- which is solid for an advanced economy – and China continues to grow at 10+%, then China will be adding more to global GDP each year than any other country.  The same can be said for global trade: China’s imports have risen 28% in the past year, so that it is an increasingly important source of demand for other countries. 

The growing importance of China in the global economy is the main reason that we have launched this China Development Blog.  There is huge interest in the prospects for China and in what is actually happening on the ground here.