China's rapid economic growth has not only been good for the Chinese, with massive reductions in poverty, but has also benefited New Zealand and the world economy, Dunedin-born economist Prof Peter Robertson said yesterday.
A University of Otago economics graduate who is now based at the University of Western Australia, in Perth, Prof Robertson was in Dunedin at the weekend to attend the University of Otago's 45th Foreign Policy School, which is devoted to "China's Ascent".
He yesterday gave a wide-ranging talk on "China's Economic Transformation and Implications for World Political Economy".
New Zealand stood to gain significantly from trade with China over the next decade, with China keen to buy agricultural goods, and scope for a wide range of other goods and services to be exported, he said in an interview.
China's economic growth had resulted in "massive reductions in poverty and rising living standards" among Chinese citizens.
China's growth had also been "extremely positive" for the world economy, with "significant terms of trade gains" being experienced by its trading partners.
Between 1995 and 2005, trade with China had resulted in a 3% rise in per capita GDP in the United States, and of about 7% for Asean countries, including Indonesia, and 13% for developed Asian nations, including Japan and South Korea.
Despite its enormous population advantage over the United States, the Chinese economy still generated less than a third of the international spending power of the US economy at this stage.
There was a 30-fold difference in average wages between the richest and poorest countries, and 30 years of relative political stability and high growth had given China "a fair chance" of bridging this chasm, but it had "a long way to go yet".
Evidence from the Chinese and US economies suggested "relatively free markets with good institutions" were the source of growth.
If China did not continue to embrace market systems he expected its growth to stall.
