By Chris Oliver, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — China has apparently overtaken Japan as the world’s second-largest economy, after data released Thursday showed double-digit growth for the full year. The growth effectively displaces its Asian neighbor from a global ranking it has held since 1968.
China’s nominal gross domestic product totaled 39.79 trillion yuan at end 2010, according to reports on Thursday. China reportedly overtook Japan in terms of nominal gross domestic product in the April-to-June quarter of 2010, though the data had yet to be confirmed on full-year figures.
Official figures from Tokyo on its 2010 growth are due out Feb. 14.
The director of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, Ma Jiantang, told reporters in Beijing Thursday that the data comparing the sizes of the two economies involves purchasing-power-parity adjustments that can raise the apparent GDP of developing countries, according to a report by Dow Jones Newswires.
The figures can be misleading because the prices of certain goods and services are relatively low in developing countries, Ma said.
Ma reportedly declined to comment directly on the size of the economies of the two countries, but said China’s GDP per capita lags well behind Japan’s.
Per capita GDP in China was about $4,412, compared to $42,431 in Japan, according to calculations by the Nikkei newspaper based on data compiled by Daiwa Institute of Research and the International Monetary Fund.
Data released early Thursday in Beijing by the National Bureau of Statistics showed GDP was up 9.8% from in the December-ended quarter and 10.3% for all of 2010. See report on Chinese economic data.
Chris Oliver is MarketWatch's Asia bureau chief, based in Hong Kong.
