WASHINGTON (AP) – China’s roaring economy for years has pulled much of the rest of the world with it, soaking up oil, iron ore and other commodities from developing countries and autos and luxury goods from Europe.
But its role as a global engine is fading as its economy slows – and many other nations, in the view of economists, will feel the pain. An Associated Press survey of 30 economists has found that 57 percent of them expect China’s decelerating economy to restrain growth in countries from Brazil and Chile to Australia and South Korea.
A notable exception is the United States, which the economists see as largely insulated from China’s troubles.
China’s once-explosive growth has slowed in part because of its government’s efforts to restrain its speculative real estate sector and shift its economy toward consumer spending. China’s economy expanded 7.3 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, its slowest pace since 2009. A growth rate above 7 percent would be the envy of most major economies. But for China, it marked a sharp slowdown after three decades of double-digit expansion.
Last week, the Conference Board, a business group, forecast that China’s growth would slump to 4 percent by 2020.