Is it payback time for Chinese workers? The country’s massive labour force, whose low wages kept the lid on global inflation for much of this decade, will this year benefit from a raft of new employment laws – raising the spectre of higher prices for consumers everywhere.

New labour laws make it harder to fire workers or rely on casual labour. This, together with an enhanced role for labour unions, hits at the core of employers’ modus operandi: Baker & Mackenzie reckons manufacturers rely on temporary staff for 80 per cent of their labour force, and even in some IT companies the figure is over 50 per cent. Not all of these will need to be replaced: there are some waivers and enforcement may not be stringent. Even so, more permanent contracts will end up being written on superior terms, including welfare insurance payments and improved discretionary benefits. Higher salaries are a given; even without legal changes wages are forecast to rise 10-15 per cent this year.