Will China overtake US as the world's largest economy in 2014

Ateneo Professor on Entrepreneurship

From the World

 


Philippines |  May 1, 2014

I watched CNN and Al Jazeera today predicting that China will soon overtake us as the world's top economy this year.  US has long since held the title after it overtook UK in 1872.  But despite that, the parity of living standards will still be behind Western standards.  Because, per capital wise, the large population of 1.36 bn will take the sting of that bigness

This is according to the World Bank International Comparison program.

China has contributed roughly 25% of the world's global growth since 2008

One can doubt the veracity of the data:   1.  On one hand, the civil servants sometimes inflate their data so that they get promote.  2.  On the other hand, there is the grey economy and many unreported revenue by vendors, in sex trade and other illegal activities.  So the economy may be bigger than reported.

The rapid growth has resulted in rapid degradation of the environment including air quality, even in Beijing

US has lagged behind in growth rates vs China and in real terms

ehi