China Expects Boom to Bring Another Trade Deficit in ’94

China, which had its first trade deficit in four years in 1993, is likely to have another one in 1994, a government economist predicts.

China reported a $12.2-billion deficit last year. It blamed the deficit on strong demand for construction and raw materials fueled by the nation’s booming economic growth.

China will be helped in 1994 by the continuing shift of its exports from raw materials to high-priced finished goods, and also by the opening of more foreign-invested joint ventures that often produce for export, the China Daily Business Weekly said Sunday, quoting Wang Huaian, a trade ministry economist.

“But inflation and money shortages are still biting and pushing up export costs,” the paper quoted Wang as saying.

The government has said it wants the economy to grow substantially more slowly in 1994 than the 13% it grew in 1993, but Western economists are skeptical that that will happen.