China´s oil vulnerability and economic growth: An empirical study

Economic growth relies on energy. Accompany with the enhancement of oil vulnerability, it´s crucial for China´s government to research the relationship between oil security and economic growth. This paper selects eight quantifiable individual indicators to comprehensively measure oil vulnerability of China for the duration of 1997-2008 by means of principal component analysis, and a comparison between the index and China´s real growth rate of GDP is conducted through the adoption of grey relational analysis, then demonstrates the following: (1) China´s oil vulnerability has been generally increased in recent years. (2) There is a comparatively high consistency between China´s oil vulnerability and economic growth. As China´s economy develops stably and rapidly, oil vulnerability is increasing invisibly. Therefore, attention should be paid to easing China´s oil vulnerability when the goal of stable and rapid economic growth is guaranteed.