If China shrinks, it’s the world’s problem

Part of progress: Like China, other wealthy countries have wrestled with population decline. — AFP

CHINA’S slowest population growth in decades may be felt more acutely beyond its borders than within them. The economy will keep humming and incomes can continue to climb, albeit at a slower rate. The rest of us, however, will need to adjust to a persistently slacker pace of global expansion and the prospective ebbing of deflationary pressure.

The caricature of China as an unlimited supplier of cheap labour holding down the cost of everything from dishwashers to dolls should be consigned to the history books.