China predicted to overtake Japan as world's second largest economy

The East Asian country had a fervent economic progress in recent times despite the global economic meltdown, and their economy grew at a rate of 10.7 per cent in the December quarter.

Japan, despite global and local fears that the country's economy might fall into a period of recession, managed to recover well and recorded an estimated 4.6 per cent growth in the December quarter.

However, greater demands from products from and to China have analysts predicting China will dislodge Japan as the world's No.2 economy, whilst Japan's economy is still expected to run into a halt in the March and June quarters, as the effects of stimulus packages put into motion by the previous government remain.

The Japanese economy's performance largely owes to strong Chinese export demand, and recorded a Gross Domestic Product of $US5085 billion, in comparison to China's $US 4909 billion.