Fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal (Asian edition) this morning, well worth a read. Discusses the historic milestone announced yesterday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics that urban dwellers now account for 51.27% of China’s population. That is 690 million people out of the total population of 1.35 billion now live in cities.

“When rural residents move to urban areas, they tend to do more economically productive work, learn more skills, earn more money, and buy more goods. They also boost demand for urban infrastructure and housing, which can boost economic growth.”

The political, social and economic consequences of urbanisation are enormous and will have an impact far beyond China’s borders – not least upon our own economy, dependant as it is on the high prices we receive for our commodity exports to China.