Most fiscal rescue packages stimulated consumption of tradable goods. China, however, has gone the other way. It has been frantically building roads and power plants.

That approach was based on the assumption that a collapse in exports would be a blip – one that could be offset by state-sponsored splurges on fixed assets. Its third-quarter gross domestic product numbers showed that the strategy had been a success, on its own terms. Over the first nine months, the economy grew 7.7 per cent. Of that, investment accounted for 7.3 percentage points and consumption 4 percentage points. The decline in net exports lopped off 3.6 percentage points.