China is already No. 1 economy in the world?

Without fanfare, much earlier than expected, and largely unnoticed by the world at large, China is acknowledged to have overtaken USA as the largest economy in the world, or as Brett Arends of Market Watch puts it, 'the leading economic power on the planet'.


'Hang on to your hats, America.


And throw away that big, fat styrofoam finger while you’re about it.


There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it: We’re no longer No. 1. Today, we’re No. 2. Yes, it’s official. The Chinese economy just overtook the United States economy to become the largest in the world. For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, America is not the leading economic power on the planet.


It just happened — and almost nobody noticed.


'The International Monetary Fund recently released the latest numbers for the world economy. And when you measure national economic output in "real" terms of goods and services, China will this year produce $17.6 trillion — compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.A.


As recently as 2000, we produced nearly three times as much as the Chinese.


To put the numbers slightly differently, China now accounts for 16.5% of the global economy when measured in real purchasing-power terms, compared with 16.3% for the U.S.


This latest economic earthquake follows the development last year when China surpassed the U.S. for the first time in terms of global trade.'


'I first reported on this looming development over two years ago, but the moment came sooner than I or anyone else had predicted. China’s recent decision to bring gross domestic product calculations in line with international standards has revealed activity that had previously gone uncounted.


These calculations are based on a well-established and widely used economic measure known as purchasing-power parity (or PPP), which measures the actual output as opposed to fluctuations in exchange rates. So a Starbucks venti Frappucino served in Beijing counts the same as a venti Frappucino served in Minneapolis, regardless of what happens to be going on among foreign-exchange traders.


PPP is the real way of comparing economies. It is one reported by the IMF and was, for example, the one used by McKinsey & Co. consultants back in the 1990s when they undertook a study of economic productivity on behalf of the British government.'


　
Rest of his article:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/official-america-now-no-2-150936444.html

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