Macroeconomics words + Why understanding China's economy is important
👋 Welcome to this week’s issue of the Giant Mandarin newsletter. This week I cover words on the topic of economics. I also write about why understanding China’s economy is important.
🎯 Words
经济 jīngjì - economy; economic 🌐
宏观 hóngguān - macro-
宏观经济学 hóngguān jīngjìxué - macroeconomics
中央银行 zhōngyāng yínháng - central bank
中央 zhōngyāng - central
银行 yínháng - bank 🏦
央行 yāngháng - central bank (abbreviation)
美联储 Měiliánchǔ - US Federal Reserve (the Fed) 🇺🇸
中国人民银行 Zhōngguó Rénmín Yínháng - People's Bank of China (China's central bank) 🇨🇳
欧洲中央银行 Ōuzhōu Zhōngyāng Yínháng - European Central Bank (ECB) 🇪🇺
英格兰银行 Yīnggélán Yínháng - Bank of England (BoE) 🇬🇧
利率 lìlǜ - interest rate
通货膨胀 tōnghuò péngzhàng - (currency) inflation 📈
通货 tōnghuò - currency; money; medium of exchange 🪙
膨胀 péngzhàng - to inflate; to expand
通胀 tōngzhàng - (currency) inflation (abbreviation)
就业 jiùyè - employment; jobs; job
就业率 jiùyèlǜ - employment rate
失业 shīyè - unemployment; to become unemployed
失业率 shīyèlǜ - unemployment rate
危机 wēijī - crisis 🤯
经济危 jīngjì wēijī - economic crisis
政策 zhèngcè - policy
货币政策 huòbì zhèngcè - monetary policy
货币 huòbì - currency; money; monetary 💵
财政政策 cáizhèng zhèngcè - fiscal policy
财政 cáizhèng - (public) finance; financial; fiscal
刺激 cìjī - to stimulate; to irritate; to upset; to provoke
刺激经济 cìjī jīngjì - to stimulate the economy
💭 Thoughts
💭 China’s economy is important.
It’s big.
It’s deeply integrated with the rest of the world.
🌏 It’s the second largest economy in the world.
The US economy is larger by about a quarter.
Both the US and Chinese economy are far larger than the third largest economy, Japan’s economy, with China’s economy over four-times larger than it.
🛠 As “the world’s factory”, supply chains of companies all over the world run through China.
Apple manufacture’s it’s iPhones there. Tesla manufacture’s it’s clothes there.
Most of the objects in ours homes were probably manufactured there.
🤝 And this integration runs the other way too.
Being the world’s factory has played a large role in driving growth and increasing household incomes in China.
🛍 China’s consumers and businesses are also increasingly important to companies outside of the country.
With the largest population in the world, some 1.4 billion people, more than four-times larger than the US population, China represents an attractive market for overseas businesses.
This includes products like iPhones and Teslas, but also commodities like metals and services like tourism and education.
👋 While the market within its borders is large, China’s companies are increasingly looking abroad.
TikTok, the international version of breakout Chinese app Douyin, created by Beijing-based ByteDance, is now one of the most popular social media platforms in the world.
Chinese companies, with government support, are increasingly looking for opportunities in emerging markets, including Southeast Asia and Africa.
🌐 What happens in the Chinese economy affects the economy of every other country.
Because of its size and integration with the rest of the world, what happens in the Chinese economy will be felt elsewhere.
💡 For these reasons, understanding China’s economy is important.
👀 Recommendations
Eugene Wei’s three-essay series on TikTok:
TikTok and the Sorting Hat (August 4, 2020)
Seeing Like an Algorithm (September 20, 2020)
American Idle, (February 21, 2021)
What did you think of this week’s newsletter? Please get in touch to let us know what you think. I’ll read every message.
Thanks for reading and see you next Thursday!
Giant Mandarin (@GiantMandarin) is written by David Wu (@davidwuio).