According to the Business Standard, “many economists see this as a critical period for China if it wants to avoid the so-called middle income trap, where wealth creation stagnates as market share is lost to lower-cost competitors and the attainment of high-income country status stays out of reach.” Chinese President Xi Jinping is now in the process of drawing up ambitious reform plans to revitalize the economy, shunning policy stimulus out of concern that it could worsen local government debt and inflate property prices. Although it is still the envy of most major economies, China’s economic growth is at its weakest in 13 years. “Xi will present the reforms at a key meeting of the ruling Communist Party later this year that will set the agenda for the next decade,” publication sources report.

The Wall Street Journal notes that, despite slower economic growth, wages in China continued to rise at a double-digit clip in 2012. Average wages for staffers at non-private enterprises rose 11.9 percent from a year earlier to 46,769 yuan (US$7,543), the National Bureau of Statistics confirmed. Non-private enterprises include listed companies, state-owned companies, and joint ventures. “Average wages for employees at private companies were up 17.1 percent to 28,752 yuan, compared with an 18.3 percent pace in 2011,” the Journal adds. “Real salary growth — after inflation — accelerated in 2012 as ‘companies actively responded to rising competition [in the labor market] and tried to ease recruitment difficulties.’”