The Year in Review: Business - The truly wise men came from the East - by Harmish McRae
Much of this growth was driven by China. For the first time since the early 1800s, the Chinese economy added more economic demand than either the US or Europe, a performance that seems likely to be repeated in 2008 and beyond. The Chinese economy will, in all probability, overtake Germany's in 2008 to become the world's third largest, after those of the United States and Japan. With growth at 11.5 per cent, the problem for the Chinese authorities is not how to boost growth, but rather how to hold it back.
The economic patterns in continental Europe varied from country to country. In Germany, exports were the driving force. It is the world's largest goods exporter and its companies managed to sustain that performance despite the strength of the euro. Across the rest of the Continent, performance was more mixed, with particular problems in Italy (slow growth) and Spain (falling house prices and construction activity). But the euro zone as a whole has managed 2.5 per cent growth, less than the UK but a much better performance than it has achieved for most of this century.
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