Will China ever get rich? A new era of much slower growth dawns

“It is unlikely that the Chinese economy will surpass that of the United States within the next decade or two,” said Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. — Reuters

BEIJING: China is entering an era of much slower economic growth, raising a daunting prospect: it may never get rich.

Whether the world’s second-largest economy chugs ahead at 3% to 4% annually or flirts, as some economists expect, with Japan-like “lost decades” of stagnation, it looks set to disappoint its leaders, its youth and much of the world.