China’s growth has been driven by several factors: high domestic investment and savings ratios, sizable foreign direct investment, the impact of catch up technologies, the massive shift of labour from subsistence agriculture to higher productivity roles in urban industrial 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  production, and on-going market based reforms including, importantly, those associated with its membership of the World Trade Organisation since 2001.
China is the world’s second largest economy, and the largest trading nation. It is the second largest trading partner for the United States and the European Community, and the largest trading partner for the 11 countries of ASEAN, as well as Australia and New Zealand. China takes 21 percent of our merchandise exports – up dramatically from 4 percent a decade ago (figure 5).