????"The risk for China is that the external factors would be more of a drag as we move in 2012," says Nicholas Lardy, author of Sustaining China's Economic Growth after the Global Financial Crisis and senior fellow at The Peterson Institute for International Economics. Lardy says the slowdown in exports is particularly worrisome, given that China's growth has been slowing down for the past four consecutive quarters. Expectations this year of a recession in Europe – one of China's key markets – and its possibly wider impact on the rest of the world could knock off another percentage point in exports.
????At this point, it seems China can only do so much. It likely won't be very easy for officials to dole out another massive stimulus plan. This comes, as Joseph Sternberg of the Wall Street Journal notes, as many economists expect some large portion of loans approved as part of the last package to go sour.
????So while it seems China has miraculously dodged more than a few headwinds, the crisis in Europe could be the malaise it can't escape.
