BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's growth is mainly due to its internal market rather than to exterior commerce, Jorge Castro, an Argentine expert on strategic planning and international policy, was quoted as saying Sunday by the local daily "Clarin."

    "The domestic demand contributed 12 percentage points to the increase of the gross domestic product (GDP), while the net exports reduced four points," said Castro, who is also president of the Institute for Strategic Planning.

    According to him, China's demand for automobiles and appliances like air conditioners, washers and microwaves was greater than that of the United States, as its economy has been growing fast.

    Castro also said that compared with the United States, more automobiles and domestic appliances were sold in China.

    Automobile sales in China increased 42 percent in the first 11 months of 2009 and by 96 percent in November compared with the same period last year, he said.

    As a consumer society, China's growth was led not by exports, but by its budding internal market, Castro said. "It is a world event, which modifies the global conditions of the accumulation process and sets a tendency for the coming 20 or 30 years."

    He added that the importance of China's internal market entails that "the exporting countries, together with China, are the great winners of the world crisis."

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis