Emerging Giants

Abstract

AbstractChina and India are two of the fastest growing countries in the world. The rapid growth of their economies has far-reaching implications for global living standards, poverty reduction, and competitiveness and distribution of income in the rest of the world. Reflecting these facts, there has been a surge of interest in the nature and implications of China and India's economic growth. This volume brings together the best such research on related issues and places them in a comparative perspective. The issues range from the roles of China and India in the world economy, contrasts in their development experience, and challenges to sustaining growth. A key message of this volume is that though both China and India have seen millions lifted out of poverty through successful economic growth, they face serious challenges going forward. Challenges emanate from the fact that growth in the two countries has been concentrated in a few sectors, has relied on unsustainably high levels of capital accumulation in China, and has not generated adequate employment growth in India. China needs to rebalance its growth away from investment and exports, move toward a more rational pricing system for land, power, and fuel, enforce more stringent environmental standards, implement significant reforms of the financial sector, and adopt greater exchange rate flexibility. India needs to grow its manufacturing sector, reform its labor laws, invest in infrastructure, further liberalize its foreign trade, and strengthen its financial system by reducing the dominance and influence of the public sector.