Abstract
China's economic growth is a much debated issue and is said to change the face of the world and presently world economic patterns are being reshaped. A couple of figures can easily help to understand how deep these changes are. Over the past 10 years, the Chinese economy grew by 10% a year on average, making it the world's fastest growing economy. Given the size of the country, its population, its ambition and the forecasts, there is no doubt that China is to become the US's most serious competitor. Already, China's growth has had a tremendous impact on the price of many raw materials. As the Economist states, "China accounted for half of the world's consumption of cement, 30% of its coal, and 36% of its steel (of which imports jumped by 50%), according to China's National Bureau for Statistics. Copper imports rose by 15%, and nickel imports more than doubled. This helped to lift The Economist metals-price index by around half from a year ago, and by 75% from its low after September 11th 2001." .
