Matthew Johnston  2015年9月8日

中国最近由于股市暴跌和人民币贬值使全球担心其经济增长放缓登上了许多新闻头条。除了最近的新闻，中国经济已经举足轻重有一段时间了，自30多年前开始市场经济改革后平均经济增长率为10%。如果你不了解，这里有五个关于中国经济有趣的事实。

经济规模

根据购买力平价测量的GDP，中国在2014年拥有全球最大的经济规模，约为17.62万亿美元。使用跨国间市场汇率比较，中国位居第二，以总GDP10.38万亿排在美国之后。

不管这些测量方法，中国的经济规模是巨大的，其产出占全球总量的15%，而近年来全球产出的50%与其有关。

最大的能源消费国

2010年中国成为世界上最大的能源消费国和第二大消费国，最大的原油进口国。这使得中国对全球石油需求和石油价格非常重要。事实上，中国经济增长放缓无疑是过去一年原油价格下跌的主要原因。两位数的经济增长时期很可能已经过去，因此油价下跌很可能成为新的现状，至少在不久的将来是这样的。

股票市场

另外，规模巨大是对中国两个股票市场上海证券交易所和深圳证券交易所最好的描述，二者总市场资产为10.3万亿美元，仅在纽约证券交易所之后。

然而，尽管规模很大，只有少于7%的城镇居民投资股票并且不到企业股本融资总额的5%。债务和留存收益是中国公司的主要资金来源。显然，中国股票市场在中国经济中的比重比美国股票市场在美国经济中的比重小的多。

中国的货币

中国货币官方称为人民币，但是通常被叫成其基本点位——元。

中国一直被美国议员指责人为保持人民币对美元的低价值以使出口更有竞争力。然而，人民币自2005年以来升值超过了30%，而且上周中国人民银行对人民币的贬值受到了国际货币基金组织的欢迎。国际货币基金组织认为贬值后的价值更符合市场力量决定的价值。

企业部分

今年，中国有98家企业登上《财富》杂志“全球500强”名单，排在美国128家的之后的第二名。但是中国企业登上世界500名单的增长迅速，2000年只有10家，而2010年只有46家。

有趣的是，这98家中的12家是国有的。事实上，这些国有企业完整的组成了中国内地经济。这些国有企业这些年来受到国家帮助免于私人竞争。

然而，遵循中国从共产主义向更加以市场为源头的资本主义经济的过度，最近中国国务院已经批准了新措施，加大政府与国有企业日常运作的距离。

总结

中国已经在较短的时间内成为了一个经济强国并且变成了国际经济事务中的一个主要因素。但是，随着中国实施进一步自由化市场改革和转型，从出口驱动经济到消费驱动经济，其增长率可能永久的低于过去30年的水平。虽然这能提供更稳定的增长，世界其他国家需要适应更低的全球需求，至少在短期内是这样的。

5 Things to Know About the Chinese Economy 

By Matthew Johnston | September 08, 2015  

China has been making a lot of headlines lately with tumbling stock markets and surprise devaluations of the yuan that has the global economy worried about the country's slowing growth. Aside from recent headlines, China’s economy has been a big deal for a while now having grown at an average of 10% since beginning the implementation of free-market reforms over 30 years ago. In case you didn’t know, here are five interesting facts about the Chinese economy.

Economic Size

According to the purchasing power parity measure of comparing total gross domestic product (GDP), China had the largest economy in the world estimated to be $17.62 trillion in 2014. Using the market exchange rates for making inter-country comparisons China ranks second behind the U.S. with a total GDP estimated at $10.38 trillion in 2014.

Regardless of the measure, China’s economy is massive as it accounts for 15% of total world output and has been responsible for about half of global output growth in recent years. 

Largest Energy Consumer

In 2010 China became the world’s largest energy consumer and stands as the second biggest consumer, albeit the world’s largest net importer of oil. This makes China extremely significant for global oil demand and consequently oil prices. In fact, slower growth in China is definitely a major factor in the recent plunge in oil prices over the past year. The double-digit growth that China has experienced in recent years is likely to be a thing of the past and hence lower oil prices could also be the new status quo, at least for the near future. 

Stock Market

Again, massive is the best word to describe China’s two stock markets—the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SHZ)—that combined, have a total market capitalization of $10.3 trillion that is second only to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Yet, despite their size, less than 7% of urban Chinese citizens invest in the stock market and less than 5% of total corporate financing is funded by equity; debt and retained earnings are the primary source of funding for Chinese companies. Evidently, China’s stock markets play a much smaller role in the Chinese economy than U.S. stock markets do in the American economy. 

China’s Currency

Officially, China’s currency goes by the title of the renminbi (RMB), but it is more commonly referred to by its basic unit of measure—the yuan.

China has been criticized by U.S. lawmakers for keeping the value of the yuan artificially low relative to the U.S. dollar in order make its exports more competitive. Yet, the yuan has actually appreciated more than 30% against the dollar since 2005, and the move by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to devalue last month was welcomed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The fund views the new lower value as more consistent with a value determined by market forces. 

Corporate Sector

This year, China had 98 companies make Fortune’s "Global 500" list ranking it second behind the U.S. with 128 companies. But the number of Chinese companies making the top 500 list has been growing rapidly as only 10 companies were based in China in 2000 and only 46 in 2010.

Perhaps, even more interesting is that the top 12 of these 98 companies are all state owned. In fact, these state-owned enterprises (SOEs) make up a full quarter of China’s mainland economy. The SOEs have been able to garner generous state support throughout the years helping to insulate them from private competition.

Yet, consistent with China’s attempts to move from a communist to a more market-oriented capitalist economy, recently the Chinese State Council has approved new measures to create greater distance between the government and the day-to-day operations of its SOEs.

The Bottom Line

China has managed to become an economic powerhouse in a relatively short period of time and has become a major factor in international economic affairs. But, as China looks to implement further free-market reforms and transition from an export and investment-driven economy to a consumer-driven economy, its growth rates are likely to be permanently lower than they have been over the past 30 years. While this should provide for more stable growth, the rest of the world will have to get used to lower global demand, at least in the short term.

本文翻译由兄弟财经提供

文章来源：http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/090815/5-things-know-about-chinese-economy.asp