Revisions to economic statistics are common and often do not have a dramatic impact on the overarching trends, other times they are significant enough for analysts to change their perspective on what is happening in a country. The most recent revision to balance of payment data released by China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) [...]

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Hearing on China’s New Leadership and Implications for the United States - February 7, 2013 Economic Rebalancing in China: For the past several years China’s top leadership has repeatedly described the country’s current economic model as “uncoordinated, unsteady, imbalanced, and unsustainable.” This language is in sharp contrast to what has been a decade of apparent success: [...]

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A recent report from the think tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI) identifies China as the largest source of illicit financial flows in the developing world. The report, Illicit Financial Flows from China and the Role of Trade Misinvoicing, identifies $3.75 trillion in illicit outflows during between 2000 and 2011. The possibility of trillions of dollars [...]

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It’s a common argument these days that China is becoming too expensive and losing its competitive edge in trade. The press is full of anecdotes from foreign companies complaining that they are being priced out of China and are moving operations elsewhere. Those that follow China know that these arguments are not new and are [...]

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Note: This is an excerpt of the forthcoming PIIE Policy Brief Understanding the Trans-Pacific Partnership by Jeffrey J. Schott, Barbara Kotschwar, and Julia Muir. The text of this post was also the basis for the author’s remarks at The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Future of International Trade event (the webcast of which can be found [...]

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There is a lot of fretting in the press this week over China’s October trade statistics. It’s true that the month-on-month growth statistics show a modest decrease. There could be a variety of different factors behind the slowdown, including an appreciating currency and weak demand in the advanced economies. That said, it’s important to view [...]

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