China’s economy bigger than US?

New data coming from a statistical program run by the World Bank implies that China’s fast growing economy is soon to overtake the United States economy.

But before Americans start panicking, mention must be made that the data relies on a different calculating method than the standard GDP.

The results, published in the International Comparison Program, have been extracted by calculating the real costs of living known as purchasing power parity. It compares economies around the world by also taking into account changes in the exchange rates.

From this point of view, China’s economy situated itself at 87% of the US economy in 2011 and should be taking the lead soon if recent growth is taken into account.

However, if the standard GDP system is applied, the $17 trillion US economy is almost twice as big as China’s reported gross domestic product.

Even with its fast growing pace, it will still take years for the US to step down and let another country take the lead position in the global economic top.