China’s economy has seen rapid and consistent growth since economic reforms in the 1980s, with current growth exceeding 10% per year. There is a significant industrial base with pockets of advanced manufacturing and high-technology enterprises, concentrated on the eastern coast and the Pearl River Delta, including Special Administrative/Economic Zones such as Hong Kong and Macau.

With huge disparities between the prosperous coastal cities and Special Zones and socially and economically-deprived inland areas, there has been a major population shift from the countryside to cities. Massive engineering schemes include the Three Gorges Dam hydro-electric project, due for completion in 2009.

China is the world’s largest rice producer and a major producer of cereals and grain. Large mineral deposits, particularly coal and iron ore, underpin an extensive steel industry. Self-sufficient in oil, China has its own petrochemicals industry. Under the ‘socialist market economy’, foreign companies are encouraged to establish joint ventures with Chinese partners. 

China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. In 2005, its central bank allowed a modest revaluation of the Yuan against the US Dollar, tying it instead to a basket of international currencies. There are demands to further relax currency controls with China enjoying a US$180 billion current account surplus as of 2006.