Chinese economy forecasted to overtake UK by 2005
The Chinese economy is on the verge of overtaking the advanced economies of both France and Britain.
At present, the Chinese economy is set to grow nearly 8 per cent in 2003, making it the fastest growing economy in the world.
All things being equal, growth predictions for the world’s most populous nation, will see it leapfrogging the sluggish French and the UK economies within the next two years, according to Goldman Sachs.
China’s GDP will exceed France next year, and the UK in two years.
And by 2041, the report forecasted, China will surpass the US, the world’s dominant and largest economy, in GDP terms.
Goldman Sachs predicted India, which has a population of 1.05 billion, would overtake the UK within 20 years and Japan within 30, putting itself at number three in the world economy pecking order, after China and America.
In 2002, China overtook Britain as the world’s fifth-largest exporter.
The communist country also attracted more inward investment than any other economy last year. Direct investment stood at 32 billion pounds in 2002.
Dominic Wilson and Roopa Purushothaman of Goldman Sachs traced the evolution of the four fastest growing emerging economies called Brics – Brazil, Russia, India and China in a paper entitled “Dreaming with Brics: The path to 2050.”
