China has announced an economic growth of almost seven per cent for 2015 and is predicting a similar expansion for this year. I may know little about economics but I think I have a reasonable grasp of basic English and arithmetic. I think growth means ‘increase’, ‘growing bigger’, ‘more’.

As we know, China remains an economy based on the sector. So if Chinese manufacturing has increased by anything from 0.1 per cent to seven per cent, then it is reasonable to deduce that it must have required more raw materials, particularly oil.

However, commodity prices have shrunk for almost two years. Shouldn’t the prices of commodities have increased to meet a rising demand in the world’s second biggest economy?

Could it be that China’s economy has contracted of late? But then it may be that my understanding of percentage growth and contraction are at fault.