However, that exceptional pace cannot be maintained forever, and we’ve seen China’s rate of growth slow in recent years. What China faces now is the same core issue confronting the United States: coming to terms with a new normal for the future. Both countries are looking to create more long-term stability by rebalancing the role that domestic consumption plays in their economies. They are simply coming at it from opposite directions. The United States would like to decrease its reliance on consumption as the engine of growth, relying more on domestic investment and exports. China would like to see more consumer spending at home, and less reliance on domestic investment and exports. The contrast is striking: Chinese household consumption accounted for around 36% of GDP in 2011; the comparable figure for the United States is 69%. For comparison, in the euro zone, private consumption spending averages around 58% of GDP.