China moves up to third largest economy

China’s economy grew by 11.9% last year, unofficially making it the world’s third-largest economy ahead of Germany.

A report on the National Statistics Bureau’s website said China’s gross domestic product in 2007, in nominal terms, was 24.95 trillion yuan, or £1.8 trillion. Its earlier estimate for last year’s GDP growth was 11.4%.

The bureau also raised its estimate for China’s GDP growth in 2006 upward by 0.5 percentage points to 11.6%.

Germany has yet to report 2007 economic data, but its government has forecast 2.4% growth, which would raise its annual output to £1.75 trillion.