China could overtake US

CHINA could overtake the United States to become the world's largest economy as early as 2020, a top business consultancy said on Thursday, underlining the 'seismic change' in global economic power.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) also said in its report that by 2030 the top 10 world economies could be China, followed by the United States, India, Japan, Brazil, Russia, Germany, Mexico, France and Britain.

The current 10 largest economies, according to 2008 data from the International Monetary Fund, are the United States, Japan, China, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Russia, Spain and Brazil.

'These projects suggest that China could be the largest economy in the world as early as 2020 and is likely to be some way ahead of the US by 2030,' John Hawksworth, head of macroeconomics at PWC, said in the report.

'India could grow even faster than China after 2020, however, and will also move rapidly up the global GDP (gross domestic product) rankings' because of its younger and faster growing population as opposed to China, he added.

The report also pointed to an increasing share of global GDP taken up by China and India, compared to the United States and the European Union.