China to surpass Japan to become second largest economy

January 2, 2010

The Chinese economy is likely to overtop the Japanese economy and become the second largest in the world.

Li Daokui, Director of the Center for China in the World Economy (CCWE) at the Tsinghua University, states that there is no doubt about what the numbers or the statistics show. China's GDP growth was 9.6% in 2008. Despite predictions about China's GDP being at around 8.6% to 9%, it rose to 9.6%, as stated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected previously that China will overtake Japan soon since the latter's GDP dropped this year.

“The big underlying factor propelling China’s growth is the continued migration of people from the agricultural sector to the more modern economy—industry and services,” said economist David Cohen.

In 2007 China became the third largest economy in the world when it overtook Germany. In 2009, the economic stimulus program assisted China in attaining 8% growth.