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China overtakes U.S. as world's biggest consumer
Last Updated Wed, 16 Feb 2005 23:15:59 EST
CBC News
WASHINGTON - China has surpassed the United States to lead the world in the consumption of basic food and industrial goods, a study says.
INDEPTH: China's economic miracle
The booming Asian country now uses more meat, grain, steel and coal, according to an environmental think-tank's report released Wednesday.
The only basic commodity still consumed in greater quantities by Americans is oil, says the report from the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute.
The Chinese have even eclipsed Americans in consumer goods, buying more refrigerators, more televisions and cell phones.
"China is no longer just a developing country. It is an emerging economic superpower, one that is writing economic history," writes the institute's president, Lester Brown.
"If the last century was the American century, this one looks to be the Chinese century."
However, per capita consumption in the world's most populous country remains far below that of the United States.
According to the report:
China's 1.3 billion people ate 64 million tonnes of meat in 2004, compared with 38 million tonnes consumed by the 297 million people in the United States.
China used 382 million tonnes of grain in 2004, compared to 278 million tonnes in the United States.
China's use of steel in 2003 soared to 258 million tonnes – more than twice that of the United States – as hundreds of thousands of factories, high-rise apartments and office buildings were constructed for rapidly growing urban populations.
China burned 800 million tonnes of coal compared to 574 million tonnes in the United States, leading the Earth Policy Institute to warn "it is only a matter of time until China will also be the world's top emitter of carbon."
Sales of almost all consumer products are skyrocketing in China, especially of electronics. In 2003, China had 269 million cell phones, for example, compared to 159 million in the United States.
The Chinese still lag behind the Americans in their use of automobiles, however, with only one-tenth of the 226 million vehicles that clog U.S. roads.
The report says that China's "voracious appetite" for goods ranging from grain to iron ore to forest products has placed it "at the centre of the world raw materials economy," driving up commodity prices and ocean shipping rates.
Brown warns that the United States, which is the world's leading debtor nation, now depends heavily on Chinese capital to underwrite its fast-growing debt.
"If China ever decides to divert this capital surplus elsewhere, either to internal investment or to the development of oil, gas, and mineral resources elsewhere in the world, the U.S. economy will be in trouble."
Last Updated Wed, 16 Feb 2005 23:15:59 EST
CBC News
WASHINGTON - China has surpassed the United States to lead the world in the consumption of basic food and industrial goods, a study says.
INDEPTH: China's economic miracle
The booming Asian country now uses more meat, grain, steel and coal, according to an environmental think-tank's report released Wednesday.
The only basic commodity still consumed in greater quantities by Americans is oil, says the report from the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute.
The Chinese have even eclipsed Americans in consumer goods, buying more refrigerators, more televisions and cell phones.
"China is no longer just a developing country. It is an emerging economic superpower, one that is writing economic history," writes the institute's president, Lester Brown.
"If the last century was the American century, this one looks to be the Chinese century."
However, per capita consumption in the world's most populous country remains far below that of the United States.
According to the report:
China's 1.3 billion people ate 64 million tonnes of meat in 2004, compared with 38 million tonnes consumed by the 297 million people in the United States.
China used 382 million tonnes of grain in 2004, compared to 278 million tonnes in the United States.
China's use of steel in 2003 soared to 258 million tonnes – more than twice that of the United States – as hundreds of thousands of factories, high-rise apartments and office buildings were constructed for rapidly growing urban populations.
China burned 800 million tonnes of coal compared to 574 million tonnes in the United States, leading the Earth Policy Institute to warn "it is only a matter of time until China will also be the world's top emitter of carbon."
Sales of almost all consumer products are skyrocketing in China, especially of electronics. In 2003, China had 269 million cell phones, for example, compared to 159 million in the United States.
The Chinese still lag behind the Americans in their use of automobiles, however, with only one-tenth of the 226 million vehicles that clog U.S. roads.
The report says that China's "voracious appetite" for goods ranging from grain to iron ore to forest products has placed it "at the centre of the world raw materials economy," driving up commodity prices and ocean shipping rates.
Brown warns that the United States, which is the world's leading debtor nation, now depends heavily on Chinese capital to underwrite its fast-growing debt.
"If China ever decides to divert this capital surplus elsewhere, either to internal investment or to the development of oil, gas, and mineral resources elsewhere in the world, the U.S. economy will be in trouble."
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