WTO Membership to Boost China's GDP Growth

Home>>Business

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 11, 2001

WTO Membership to Boost China's GDP Growth

China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) will give additional boost for China's GDP growth, according to analysts on China's economy.

China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) will give additional boost for China's GDP growth, according to analysts on China's economy.

"We see joining the WTO enabling the economy to add an extra 0.5 percentage points to GDP growth until 2006, while exports should grow by 16 percent per annum in 2002-06," said Pu Yonghao, a senior economist for Nomura International (Hong Kong) Limited.

Pu said this in his report published Tuesday when China finally became a member of the WTO after a 15-year marathon march.

"Repeated so many times over the past few years, the phrase 'China's imminent accession to the WTO' was on its way to joining the ranks of meaningless platitudes."

The total GDP of China should grow to 15.5 trillion RMB (1.9 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2006 from 8.9 trillion RMB (1.075 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2000, according to Pu's analysis.

He saw greater productivity, improved efficiency and a rise in higher-value added output as significant contributors to this boost in GDP growth.

Also optimistic about the prospect of China's WTO entry is Yiping Huang, a senior economist for Salomon Smith Barney, who believed that this move will on average add about one percentage point to China's GDP growth in each of the next five years.

"Given its current income level and reform momentum, we believe China can achieve an average growth rate at around 7.5 percent for the next 10 years," compared to average growth of over 10 percent in the past decade, Huang said.

Huang forecast that China's GDP would growth 7.4 percent for 2001, seven percent for 2002 and eight percent for 2003.

China's Growth Goes Stronger in Coming Years: SSB Forecast

Fast Growth, High Efficiency and Low Inflation Feature China's Economy (II)