China and India — The New Growth Engines of the Global Economy?

Lisa Peterskovsky and Margot Schüller

While the leading industrial nations are still recovering from the consequences of the global financial crisis, China and India are already boasting very high growth rates again. In the third quarter of 2009 China’s economic growth was 10.7 percent; India’s was 7.9 percent. Both countries are again being portrayed as the growth engines of the global economy.

Analysis

Despite their impressive economic successes, China and India face the following social and economic challenges:

— In the context of the economic growth, poverty in the two countries, particularly in China, has declined significantly. However, disparities have increased in both China and India.

— High and increasing disparities in income and public goods such as health and education could trigger societal conflicts and endanger social stability. In addition, unequal access to education could hamper human capital formation.

— The migration of the rural population to the cities is bringing about not only positive income and learning effects in both countries, but also considerable burdens on infrastructure and social security systems.

— Both countries are confronted with major environmental challenges, which threaten economic growth. Environmental policy measures often fail due to a lack of implementation at the local level.

— The inadequate expansion of infrastructure continues to be a barrier to growth. This is particularly true of India and the rural areas of China.

If you are interested in receiving free information about GIGA online publications, events, and lectures, please join the mailing list at:

http://www.giga-hamburg.de/mailinglist.

Weitere Informationen:
http://www.giga-hamburg.de/giga-focus/international
GIGA Focus International Edition
http://www.giga-hamburg.de/giga-focus
GIGA Focus series on Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and global issues
http://staff.en.giga-hamburg.de/schueller
Website of Dr. Margot Schüller
http://www.giga-hamburg.de/english/index.php?file=ias.html&folder=ias
GIGA Institute of Asian Studies
http://www.giga-hamburg.de
GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies

All latest news from the category: Studies and Analyses

innovations-report maintains a wealth of in-depth studies and analyses from a variety of subject areas including business and finance, medicine and pharmacology, ecology and the environment, energy, communications and media, transportation, work, family and leisure.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Pinpointing hydrogen isotopes in titanium hydride nanofilms

Although it is the smallest and lightest atom, hydrogen can have a big impact by infiltrating other materials and affecting their properties, such as superconductivity and metal-insulator-transitions. Now, researchers from…

A new way of entangling light and sound

For a wide variety of emerging quantum technologies, such as secure quantum communications and quantum computing, quantum entanglement is a prerequisite. Scientists at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Science of Light…

Telescope for NASA’s Roman Mission complete, delivered to Goddard

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is one giant step closer to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. The mission has now received its final major delivery: the Optical Telescope…