China’s shift from producer to consumer is changing the nature of the country’s trade, as well as the strategies of banks that are seeking to capture the trade flows in and out of the country. Opportunities abound in meeting the increasing demands of consumers in China. Meanwhile, the country’s largest companies are expanding internationally and are increasingly being recognised as global brands by the rest of the world’s consumers.
Fears of a dramatic slowdown have dogged China’s economy, but the so-called ‘hard landing’ has failed to materialise. The World Bank notes that China’s growth is gradually slowing as the country restructures its economy from manufacturing to services on the supply side, and from investment to consumption on the demand side. In 2013, output grew by 7.7%, which was the same as 2012’s growth rate, and higher than the government target of 7.5%. The World Bank estimates that economic growth in China will decrease slightly over the next two years, to 7.6% in 2014 and 7.5% in 2015.