The goal has been smooth growth. Thus state figures have sometimes underestimated true expansion. Likewise, in the previous slowdown, when electricity generation stalled, economic activity mysteriously rumbled on unaffected. Thus when
we learn that China will, over two years, pump Rmb4,000bn ($586bn, €466bn) into an economy growing at “only” 9 per cent a year – a veritable comedown from the 10-12 per cent an octane-fuelled populace has come to expect – we should sniff the contents suspiciously.
中國政府的目標一直是平穩增長。因此,官方數據有時低估了真實的增長速度。同樣,在以往的經濟減速時期,當“電力供應”已經停頓時,中國的經濟活動還不可思議地繼續前行,絲毫未受影響。因此,當我們得知未來兩年內,中國將向年增長率“只有”9%——相對于急功近利的民眾所預計的10%至12%,這的確是一種下降——的經濟注入4萬億人民幣(合5860億美元)時,我們應以一種懷疑的目光來看待這些數字。