Japan has lost its status of the world’s second strongest economy after the USA. It is stated in the country’s GDP data released by the Japanese Government on Monday, February 14, - Agence France-Presse says. Japan has been on the second place with the biggest GDP since 1968.
In follow-up of 2010, the GDP of Japan amounted to 5,474 trillion dollars, and China - 5,879 trillion dollars. For the first time for 3 years the Japanese economy demonstrated growth – by 3,9% for year. However, the GDP of China advanced by 10,3% for the same period. In terms of GDP indicator China is still far from Japan – 4,5 thousand dollars versus 40 000 dollars. Japan has suffered from the world economic crisis more than other developed countries – the export contracted supplying a significant GDP share and also internal consumption. In 2010 the yen rate reached the maximum for the last 15 years that resulted in lowering of the Japanese goods competitiveness on the foreign markets. Apart from this, the Japanese Government still cannot reach the budget deficit cut which is at record levels now. In January 2011 due to high state debt rate of the country Standard & Poor's Agency has ticked down the long term credit rating of Japan from "AA" to "АА-" for the first time since 2002.
China has become the world’s third economy in 2007 picking out this status from Germany. Several analysts forecasted that China would outstrip Japan by the GDP volume at the end of 2009, but that time the Japanese economy managed to hold the second place. If the economic upsweep paces of China stay the same then the country will outrun the USA obtaining the status of the first economy in the world during the coming 10 years, as noted by the surveyed BBC News experts.
