Report: China May Edge US as World's Top Economy by 2020

Friday, 18 Jun 2010 11:44 AM

China's economy will keep up its robust pace of growth despite the euro zone debt crisis and may exceed the United States to become the world's largest economy in 2020, an academic adviser to the central bank said in remarks published on Friday.

The global financial crisis is basically over and the European sovereign debt crisis will not jeopardize the world's recovery by causing a double-dip recession in the short term, said Li Daokui, an economics professor at Tsinghua University.

"The European debt crisis will also not change China's current steady recovery," he said, adding that the country is now less reliant on external demand.

Li, one of three academic advisers of China's central bank, told the overseas edition of People's Daily that China should stick to its economic restructuring reform despite recent financial market turbulence.

That way, China can achieve annual growth of 9-10 percent in the next 10 years, he said.

"Considering the yuan's gradual appreciation against the dollar, China is highly likely to exceed the United States to become the world's largest economy in 2020," he said.

The euro zone debt crisis and concerns over further property tightening measures have driven down China's main stock index by more than 20 percent this year in one of the world's worst-performing major markets.

Li said that China would continue its policies to curb overly fast property price rises and the focus would next shift to government-subsidized housing.

http://www.moneynews.com/Economy/Beijin ... /id/362407