How far a cyclical slowdown in investment translates into a rise in China's national saving surplus also depends on how consumers react.
The rise in China's relative costs has been even greater given its higher inflation rate.
Undeterred, in its latest forecast the IMF says that China's surplus will rise to 6.8% of GDP in 2013 and almost 8% by 2016.
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Mr Greenspan said that even if China's currency did rise against the dollar, any reduction in imports from China was likely to be offset by higher imports from other Asian countries.
One explanation may be that China's rise has resulted in a bigger shift in investment demand in the rest of Asia than elsewhere in the world.
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In 2012, China's lowest earners saw their wages rise by 14% on average, while inflation was held to about 2%.
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Companies are increasingly looking for cheaper alternatives and that is Bangladesh's only advantage as wages rise in China, says its editor Edward Hertzmann.
Both foreign traders and local producers have in recent months observed a spectacular rise in the popularity of wine in China, at least in the country's more prosperous and cosmopolitan cities and coastal regions.
The problem is that China's narrower surplus reflects an unsustainable rise in investment (as a share of GDP) rather than in consumption.
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There's a rise of female travel globally, especially in China, where more and more women are traveling every day.
The American investor compared China's economic rise to the rapid growth seen in the U.S. in the 20th century with the Great Depression in the 1930s.
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Bank of China's move comes at a time of U.S. pressure on China to let its currency rise in value.
For China's banks the lessons lie mainly in the rapid fall, rather than the slow rise.
China's decision to raise prices by 10% in November has also caused tempers to rise.
If wages continued to rise at this pace, it would mark a hairpin turn in China's labour market.
Others have cited their holdings of foreign assets - the biggest amongst China's banks - as a cause for concern, as the rise in the value of the yuan has made these less profitable.
Japan's shipments to China rose by 3% in January from a year earlier, the first rise since May.
Except for China and its stupendous rise, none of these has gotten much notice in the U.S. for years.
If India successfully manages its relationships with Pakistan and China, will the country's rise to global prominence trigger serious anxieties elsewhere in the world?
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The thorniest question is whether the rise of China and other emerging-markets is affecting wages in the U.S. The textbook view is that trade hurts some workers and helps others and on balance is a net plus.
But although households account for a large part of China's exalted national saving rate, they were not responsible for the sharp rise in national thrift since 2000.
MarkMonitor's study shows that 44% of the sites advertised in drug-selling spam were hosted in the U.S. China hosted 18% of the pages, while the former Soviet states gave rise to another 12%.
China's imports have ballooned this year, thanks to its prodigious stimulus spending and a rise in commodity prices.
Latest census figures revealed last month showed China's population grew to 1.34 billion people by 2010, with a sharp rise in those over 60.
Investors had not been expecting another European rate rise right away, thanks to troubles in the U.S. housing market and uncertainty about China, but UBS analyst Stephane Deo does see the ECB hiking rates again to 4.25% in September, and to 4.75% in mid-2008.
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