GDP
             |Year |United States |China |
             |1999 |4.1 % |7.1 % |
             |2000 |3.8 % r0 % |
             |2001 |0.3 % |7.3 % |
             |2002 |2.45 % |7.0 % |
             |2003 |3 % |7.4 % |
             Source: http://www.worldbank.org/prospects/gdf2003/gdf_statApp_web.pdf and
             The first thing that we should perhaps mention in an analysis of
             growth rates over the last years in the United States (1999-2003) is that
             the United States had experienced in the 1990s a period of economic boom
             almost without precedent until them, only briefly interrupted at the
             beginning of the 90s. The victory in the Cold War, its appearance as the
             only global superpower, the continuous development of IT and the IT market,
             as well as a continuous growth of productivity are only some of the causes
             of this economic development. Analysts have shown that the growth in
             productivity rates is not necessarily due only to the technological changes
             during this decade, but also to the US economic model, providing an
             incentive for personal innovations and rewarding to personal
             It was only perhaps natural that this period of growth should have
             been stagnated after a decade and that 2001 proved a year of serious
             recession, with growth only up to 0.3 %. The causes for these are
             numerous. An important current account deficit (that continuous today as
             we shall see), chronic one may say, combined with the passing of the .com
             era and the terrible attacks of 11th of September, that created an
             uncertainty within the consumers, are only some of the causes.
             However, recovery was soon to follow. 2002 and 2003 marke
             ...