Yet for any country at such a development stage there is a worry that it could fall into the "middle-income trap," meaning that growth could stagnate as the country no longer enjoys low-cost labor as a competitive edge and has yet to develop enough innovation to catch up with the high-income countries.

The overseas download growth of Chinese games is likely to stagnate, while consumer spending poses huge growth potential, especially in developed markets as local consumers possess strong spending power, according to Dai Bin, head of the greater China region at App Annie.

The German automotive supplier's planning was now based on the assumption that automobile production "will stagnate in the coming years, unlike in the past when it almost always went up," according to Denner.

The United States and European markets, by contrast, will either stagnate or contract during this period," it said.

If a "technology trade war" continues, he said, "global growth will stagnate, they're going to go back to the dark ages in some way, because nobody by themselves can create all that knowledge.