The roots of China's rapid recovery

For much of the world, China's ability to shrug off the global financial crisis and maintain a strong growth trajectory in 2010 and 2011 seems too easy.

But securing China's growth has been anything but easy. The strong, decisive, and deftly timed stimulus policies at the start of the financial crisis did, of course, play a major role in China's quick rebound. As early as October 2008, when the crisis first hit, China's government adopted a comprehensive policy package designed to prevent the economy from sliding further. The fiscal deficit was equivalent to 3% of GDP in 2009, which generated 3% GDP growth, while the deficit in 2008 was literally zero.