Paris: China is poised to overtake the US as the world's largest economy this year, earlier than expected.
“The United States remained the world's largest economy (in 2011), but it was closely followed by China” once data was adjusted for comparison on a standard basis, the World Bank said on Wednesday.
Fresh research by the International Comparison Program (ICP), coordinated by the World Bank, considered the real cost of living and purchasing power in countries around the world as the best way of comparing the size of different economies.
The research revealed that the size of the Chinese economy in 2011 was 87% of the US economy, up from 43% in 2005 when the last comparison was made.
According to the research, for growth between 2011 and 2014, that would put China ahead of the US this year.
The US has been the world's largest economy since the late 19th century, and economists previously thought it would not be knocked off the top spot until 2019.
