China's Macroeconomic Performance and Management during Transition

Since reforms started in 1978, China has combined rapid growth with moderate price stability. This paper analyzes China's macroeconomic performance over the past fifteen years with special attention to factors responsible both for the pace of economic expansion and the periodic fluctuations. Regarding the former, the author identifies four sources of stimuli: administrative decentralization, high levels of fixed capital investment, the elastic supply and quality of the labor force, and the increasing volume of savings supplemented in recent years by a large inflow of foreign direct investment. Future growth with stability calls for controlling and implementing banking and fiscal reform.