Both too much and too little are expected of China's response to the economic crisis: too much, because the Asian giant can play only a modest role in rescuing the world economy; too little, because few believe the economy will be radically changed. The stimulus programme is helpful, for China and the world. But the real challenge is structural transformation.

As the World Bank's June quarterly update shows, China's response to the crisis has been a success. It forecasts economic growth at 7.2 per cent in 2009. This is a long way down from the 11.9 per cent in 2007. But it would be viewed as a triumph anywhere else. For such an open economy to cope with a fall in the rate of real export growth from 20 per cent in 2007 to 8 per cent last year and a forecast of minus 10 per cent this year is remarkable.

Nevertheless, the impact of China's stimulus on the rest of the world will be modest: the country generates only 7 per cent of global output, at market prices; more-over, the bank also forecasts a decline of 5 per cent in real imports this year. The net stimulus China will give to the rest of the world will only be around 0.1 per cent of global output in 2009.