China overtakes Japan as world's second-largest economy

China overtakes Japan as world's second-largest economy

www.guardian.co.uk

...China has leapfrogged Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, a title Japan has held for more than 40 years.

While Japan grew 3.9% last year – its first annual growth in three years – this was not enough to hold off China's booming economy. Japan's nominal GDP was $5.4742tn (£3.4tn) in 2010, less than China's total of $5.8786tn, according to official data released by Japan...

...China remains on target to take the number-one slot from the US between 2020 and 2030...

(visit the link for the full news article)

Some of you may recall that China overtook Japan earlier, I believe in 2009, and perhaps again in 2010, the two flip-flopping back and forth in the second and third slots. It's also worth remembering that the figures used to derive even "orthodox" numbers like GDP are notoriously unreliable in both nations and indeed around the world.

Even so, the change is of symbolic import for the two, as Japan has held the world's No. 2 slot since the late 1960s. The world's eyes will be on the uneasy relationship between the two historical adversaries as the regional power tectonics lurch into a new long-term configuration of questionable stability.

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Thanks for posting some real numbers.
This is interesting considering the long time rivalry between the two which has gotten hot over the past 100 years or so.

Bookmarked for future reference when the over the top claims come out....

And people wondered why China was building ghost cities!

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reply to post by silent thunder

reply to post by silent thunder


This is very deceptive when you break it down per capita they are not even close. If you have a billion people making hardly anything it still adds up on GDP. Even with that billion people china isn't even half of the United States GDP. Do it per capita again and the winner becomes Qatar $88,232 per person. China ranks 93 at $7,518.00 while Japan rates in at 24 with $33,828.00 per person and the United States is 6th at $47,123.00 .Facts can can always be manipulated to prove any point you like all you do is change the variables.

PS the poorest country in the worls is Democratic Republic of Congo they make $ 340.00 per person. Imagine what that must be like when the average person makes less then 340.00 in a year. Ive been to some poor countries in my travels but even Haiti averages 1121.00 and i remember thinking they were poor.

Originally posted by xpert11

The following is my opinion as a member participating in this discussion.

IMO it is very possible that both the US and Japanese governments could default on there debt during the coming decade .

As an ATS Staff Member, I will not moderate in threads such as this where I have participated as a member.

Not going to happen. In Japan, at least.

Nearly all of Japan's debt is domestic. The remaining 10% or so can be easily handled by the $1.1 Trillion in foreign reserves if need be.

The domestic debt is predominantly capital infrastructure - it's tied up in roads and bridges and railroads and community centres and everything else. It's like your mortgage - having a mortgage that's 200% of your annual income isn't all that bad, as long as you can make the payments, and Japan is in no danger of falling into that kind of situation.

The only reason this story keeps coming up is that there are a lot of people who want desperately to buy Japan's domestic debt - there's big money to be made there if any Japanese PM is fool enough to go that route.