China May Surpass U.S. Economy in Two Years

Get ready for heated trade debates on Capitol Hill, because this news won’t be taken lightly by anyone. A new study from the Conference Board, a respected global business research group, forecasts the global economy picking up speed in the next decade, with China’s GDP overtaking that of the U.S. as early as 2012. For the comparison, the two countries’ GDPs were measured in terms of Purchasing Power Parity, a widely used economic measure that assumes relative prices for identical goods are equal in different markets. In absolute terms, it will be years before China’s GDP matches that of the U.S., but in terms of Purchasing Power Parity, the Conference Board projects that China’s GDP could be double that of the U.S. by 2020.