If Hu Jintao was a growth junkie, Xi Jinping wants to put China’s economy on a methadone programme. Under Mr Hu, the former president, Beijing was addicted to economic expansion. China defied the collapse in external demand that followed the 2008 Lehman Brothers crisis by ramping up spending on roads, ports and smelters through a huge expansion of credit funnelled into the economy via compliant banks and local governments desperate to meet centralised growth targets. The economy grew at near double digits even as exports slowed dramatically and the current account surplus shrank from 10 per cent of output to just 2-3 per cent.
如果說(shuō)胡錦濤執(zhí)政期間的中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)就好像是一個(gè)嗜增長(zhǎng)成癮的人，那么習(xí)近平現(xiàn)在希望用美沙酮來(lái)為之戒癮。在中國(guó)前任國(guó)家主席胡錦濤的任期內(nèi)，中國(guó)政府癡迷于追求經(jīng)濟(jì)擴(kuò)張。面對(duì)2008年雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)倒閉以后出現(xiàn)的海外需求大幅萎縮，中國(guó)通過(guò)聽(tīng)話的銀行以及急于滿足中央經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)目標(biāo)的地方政府，向經(jīng)濟(jì)注入巨額信貸資金，擴(kuò)大開(kāi)支修建公路、港口、熔爐。雖然出口增長(zhǎng)顯著放緩，經(jīng)常項(xiàng)目順差與國(guó)內(nèi)生產(chǎn)總值(GDP)之比從10%下降為僅2%至3%，但中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)仍以接近兩位數(shù)的速度增長(zhǎng)。