Of all the economic themes competing for status as drivers of the global economy, one of the clear gold-medal favourites is the Chinese slowdown.
The massive economic expansion of China has been a constant in the global economy for most of the past three decades. The Middle Kingdom's average annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) has run at just over 9 per cent since 1989, peaking at 14.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 1992.
