Problems of overaccumulation in China

Abstract

The Chinese investment rate reaches a world record in 2009, exceeding 45% of the GDP. However, this very strong accumulation process may be extremely dangerous for the continuation of the national investment. Most of the time, the emphasis is put on the importance of overproduction and idle capacities: Chinese industry often works at only 50% of its production capacities, what threatens the productivity growth. Nevertheless, this evolution of productivity has to be considered overall by the yardstick of the theory of the falling rate of profit, introduced by Karl Marx in the third book of Das Kapital.