China's status as a trade giant has been assured for years, but a new Standard Chartered report shows the nation's exports and imports topped the US for the first time in 2013, with $4.16 trillion of goods traded globally.
According to report author Madhur Jha, "China is a true mega-trader — a position last held by colonial Britain, with trade significant not only as a share of world trade (11.5%) but also of its own GDP (47%)."
The above map illustrates the rapid expansion in global business China has undergone in the last two decades. For example, its trade to Latin America has increased more than 200 times from the levels in 1990 and is the fastest growing trade corridor. The US remains China's number one export destination, followed by the EU.
However, the nation's trade growth has slowed down recently. Exports accounted for about 25 percent of GDP in 2012, down from 35 percent in 2007, although such high levels of growth may be unsustainable, and experts are still expecting the Chinese economy to double in size by 2020.
"China’s trade growth is unlikely to rebound to the double-digit level seen over the last couple of decades. However, it is important to remember that the sheer size of China’s trade will mean that even 7 percent GDP growth, faster than the growth in developed world trade, would make China the single biggest contributor to world trade in absolute terms," Standard Chartered economists said.
[Image via Standard Chartered]
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