With China’s emergence as the world’s second-largest economy and its stalwart performance during the global economic recession, it’s not surprising that economists closely monitor the nation’s growth propellers and debate the strength of momentum.

"Likonomics," named after Premier Li Keqiang, has been getting a lot of attention amid expectations of further Chinese economic reforms.

Mark Purdy, managing director and chief economist at the Dublin-based consultancy Accenture Institute for High Performance, is one of them. Based in London, he has visited China several times. He said he views future growth in the context of labor, capital and productivity increases. However, China also presents a paradox, he said. While productivity growth has been decent, many sectors and firms appear to be struggling. He sat down with Shanghai Daily to share his views on trends in China’s economy and to discuss Accenture’s latest report, “The Power of Three.”

Q: What was the basis for the report and how did you approach the research?

A: We have spent a lot time looking at the China economy in the last few years. It has been a lot of focus on sustainable growth. There are two challenges. One is demographic. China’s population is aging, and the working population is expected to plateau. The second concerns the capital of over-investment. We use data collected by our institute to look at industries and individual enterprises in China for differences in productivities.