ABSTRACT
The economic trends in 2008–09 refer to the extension of the economic situation in 2008 as there was inertia in economic operation and the stepwise development of economic trends in 2009. This chapter examines the features of the economic situation of China in 2008. The extensive economic growth mode is mainly displayed in the high energy consumption, high material consumption, high pollution, low labor cost, low resource cost, low environmental cost, low level of technical content and low price competition. The expansion effect of the multiple international and domestic adjustments produces enormous pressures in two aspects. First, it increases the pressure in the transformation of the economic growth mode and the structural adjustment. Second, it further intensifies the pressure of the economic downside in China. The year-on-year growth rate of the industrial added value in December was 5.7 percent, 0.3 percent higher than that of November, preliminarily showing certain containment of the trend of a sharp drop in growth.
