According to the International Monetary Fund, when looking at purchasing-power, China is right now overtaking the US to become the world’s largest economy.
By the end of this year, China will constitute 16.48% of the world’s purchasing-power and the US will make up 16.28%.
This is according to ‘adjusted purchasing power’:
The simple logic is that prices aren’t the same in each country: A shirt will cost you less in Shanghai than in San Francisco, so it’s not entirely reasonable to compare countries without taking this into account. Though a typical person in China earns a lot less than the typical person in the US, simply converting a Chinese salary into dollars underestimates how much purchasing power that individual, and therefore that country, might have. The Economist’s Big Mac Index is a great example of these disparities.
So the IMF measures both GDP in market-exchange terms and in terms of purchasing power. On the purchasing-power basis, China is overtaking the US right about now and becoming the world’s biggest economy.
We’ve just gone past that crossover on the chart below, according to the IMF. By the end of 2014, China will make up 16.48% of the world’s purchasing-power adjusted GDP (or $17.632 trillion), and the US will make up just 16.28% (or $17.416 trillion):
IMF, Google Public Data ExplorerAdjusted for purchasing power, the IMF thinks China’s economy is now the world’s largest.
It’s not all sour news for the US. It’ll be some time yet until the lines cross over in raw terms, not adjusted for purchasing power. By that measure, China still sits more than $6.5 trillion lower than the US and isn’t likely to overtake for quite some time:
with 1.75 billion people it should be basedon teh number of consumers alone
thanks to obama and his great policies
the fall started way before the current dolt in office, the previous few dolts didn’t do any better.
We have done no such thing. It all started with reagan. When he was done trying to out do Russia he had us 4 trillion. And we won’t talk about bush and his trillions. Obama did not spend 19 trillion in the last 8 years, so get it straight Michael Eifert…
Oblamo doubled debt himself in just 6 years and still economy stuck in mud,,,,,WTF
this has been in the works since before Nixon . why is it so hard for the average man too see that they have been stabbed in the back {by their own government }decades now by all who have held the reigns of power .
Thanks to Wal MArt and the CLINTONS
Girard REAGAN stopped the communist..your a typical LIBTARD it is the dumbo craps ruining this country…always blame the ones who got it right…your a loser so shut your pie hole
GOP economics RGO
Americans are greedy, and Jack prices up. If people in America would cut back on price we all could live here and work here without being in debt .