World economies head for a shake up

The growing importance of Asia's major economies will continue in 2018 and beyond, according to a league table that sees the region dominating in terms of size in just over a decade.

The report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research in London sees India leapfrogging the UK and France next year to become the world's fifth-biggest economy in dollar terms. It will advance to third place by 2027, moving ahead of Germany.

In 2032, three of the four largest economies will be Asian - China, India and Japan - and, by that time, China will also have overtaken the US to hold the No. 1 spot. India's advance won't stop there, according to the CEBR, which sees it taking the top place in the second half of the century.

Also by 2032, South Korea and Indonesia will have entered the top 10, supplanting Group of Seven nations Italy and Canada.

In October 2014, the International Monetary Fund said that China had overtaken the US as the world's largest economy when it is measured by purchasing power parity. The PPP measurement is based on the rationale that prices of goods are not the same in individual countries.

Many in China have downplayed the news, arguing that China is way behind the US and many countries in per capita GDP.

According to data by the US Central Intelligence Agency, China ranked 106th in the world in 2016 in its per capita GDP of $15,400 under the PPP measurement, just ahead of Brazil but behind countries like Thailand, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, the Maldives and Palau.

A July survey by Pew Research across 38 nations showed that 42 percent say the US is the world's largest economy, while 32 percent name China.

Across all of the countries surveyed in Latin America, as well as most in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, public perceptions tend to believe the US is the top economy. And by a 51 percent-to-35 percent margin, Americans name their own country rather than China.

But in seven of the 10 European Union nations in the study, China is considered the leading economic power. And China leads the US by a two-to-one margin in Australia.

Bloomberg - China Daily