And THEY SPENT LESS than we did.
"Stimulus boom fuels growth in China; Recovery could boost other nations’ exports" by Joe McDonald, Associated Press | July 17, 2009
BEIJING - China’s second-quarter growth accelerated on a stimulus-fed investment boom, the government reported yesterday, sparking a rise in Asian stocks on hopes the world’s third-largest economy could help to lead a global recovery.
The economy grew by 7.9 percent from a year earlier, up from the first quarter’s 6.1 percent growth rate, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Analysts said full-year growth should easily reach the government’s 8 percent target. “This should give people confidence that China’s economy is on strong footing and that there are a lot better days ahead,’’ said Alan Landau, Hong Kong-based president of Marco Polo Pure Asset Management.
How come theirs worked but ours didn...., oh, right.
The pickup in growth reflected the impact of Beijing’s $586 billion stimulus, an effort to offset a collapse in exports by pumping money into the economy through spending on public works construction. In the United States, a Chinese recovery could help to boost exports of factory and construction equipment and farm goods such as soybeans. But the bulk of China’s imports are raw materials such as Australian iron ore and components from other Asian countries, so the direct impact on the United States and Europe might be limited.
China’s strong quarterly results, coupled with higher US corporate profits, spurred a rally in Asian stocks....
What?
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