Summary: In this episode of China Money Podcast, guest Ben Simpfendorfer discusses China’s manufacturing sector and its challenges to improve productivity: - China will remain number one in manufacturing, but it is transferring higher costs to consumers - China needs to focus on expanding the private sector and the services sector to avoid failing into the so-called middle-income trap - China’s interior provinces will likely stagnate in economic growth if major reforms do not take place Our Guest Today: Ben Simpfendorfer is managing director at Hong Kong-based consultancy, Silk Road Associates. He is the former chief China economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland and the former senior China economist at JPMorgan. He published the book The New Silk Road in 2009 on China’s economic relations with the Middle East. “China will remain number one (in manufacture) even though we will see erosion at the margin. The implication is that the country will start to pass on higher production costs to the rest of the world — so higher prices in Wal-Mart and Tesco. The era of cheap goods is over.” - Ben Simpfendorfer
