China's Economy Is Booming: The US? Not So Much -- January 15, 2021

China set to topple US as biggest economy: this has been predicted for quite some time, but it will happen sooner due to Covid-19. The US lock down began less than a year ago: today China's share of global output, trade, and investment, is up. The US? Not so much. Companies are seeking closer trade and investment ties. Link here to Bloomberg.

China’s economic ascent is accelerating barely a year after its first coronavirus lockdowns, as its success in controlling Covid-19 allows it to boost its share of global trade and investment.

The world’s second-largest economy is set on Monday to report gross domestic product increased 2.1% in 2020, the only major economy to have avoided a contraction.

That should ensure its share of the world economy rose at the fastest pace this century. Global output fell 4.2% last year, according to the World Bank, pushing China’s share of it to 14.5% at 2010 dollar prices -- two years earlier than expected.

And it’s not just a blip that’ll reverse once other large economies begin to recover as vaccines are rolled out. Economists expect China’s GDP will expand 8.2% this year, continuing to outpace global peers including the U.S.

China is now on course to pass the U.S. as the biggest economy in 2028, said Homi Kharas, deputy director for the global economy and development program at the Brookings Institution, two years faster than he previously estimated.

After withstanding President Donald Trump's trade war, China is deepening economic ties within Asia and Europe and looking to domestic consumption to power its next phase of growth. President Xi Jinping said this week that “time and the situation” were on the country’s side in a new year marked by domestic turmoil in the U.S.