ABSTRACT

China's real exports have increased by more than 500 per cent over the last 15 years. According to its official news agency, China is now arguably the world's biggest exporter, ahead of Germany (the former top exporter) with 2009 exports totalling US$1.2tn (£749bn). China's continuing export acceleration has triggered intense debate over its sustainability (Akyüz, 2010). The fear is that rapid growth is being driven by an undervalued exchange rate (Wong, 1998) and excessively low labour prices (Zhang, 2006). Moreover, stagnancy in Western markets after the financial crisis has added to the pressure on China's export growth (Morrison, 2009).