China may soon become a high-income country
Has it truly escaped the middle-income trap?
CHINA IS HAUNTED by the spectre of the “middle-income trap”, the notion that emerging economies grow quickly out of poverty only to get stuck before they get rich. “During the next five years, we must take particular care to avoid falling into the middle-income trap,” said Li Keqiang, China’s prime minister, in 2016. Lou Jiwei, then China’s finance minister, once put the odds of China becoming ensnared at 50%.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “The high kingdom”
From the February 3rd 2022 edition
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