The improving U.S. economy has brought some welcome cheer to officials in Beijing, which reported an unexpectedly high 9.7 percent jump in December exports on Tuesday. If those numbers continued in months ahead, they’d also be good news for a global economy that’s running short on viable growth engines.
Not all analysts are convinced they will; many predict that China will have to loosen monetary policy soon in order to ensure that GDP growth stays above last year’s target of 7.5 percent (it’s currently around 7.3 percent). That’s worrisome because of a different number entirely: 251.
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