China has leapfrogged Japan to become the world’s second largest economy, a title Japan has held for more than 40 years.
While Japan grew 3.9% last year – its first annual growth in three years – this was not enough to hold off China’s booming economy. Japan’s nominal GDP was $5.4742tn (£3.4tn), less than China’s total of $5.878tn, according to official data released by Japan. China is the world’s largest car market and the biggest energy consumer. Having transformed itself from impoverished comunist state to economic superpower, China overtook Germany to become the world’s third largest economy four years ago. It now has its sights on the US, which it could eclipse as the world’s largest economy some time between 2020 and 2030.
Guardian 14th Feb 2011
My personal opinion is that, barring unforeseen circumstances, China will overtake the US between 2019 and 2021. The US economy is declining whilst China is still booming.
