China could overtake US economy by 2027, says Goldman Sachs' Jim O'Neill

London, Nov 20 (ANI): China is likely to overtake the United States as the world's largest economy by 2027, Jim O'Neill, the head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management has predicted.

In his long awaited update to his seminal 2001 paper on the BRIC economies of Brazil, India, Russia and China, Jim O'Neill said that the economies he highlighted have exceeded even his expectations in the way they have become global powerhouses.

He pointed out that the four countries should no longer be considered "emerging" economies but rather "growth" economies and should be given their rightful place as the top table of power, the Telegraph reports.

"Our updated research suggests that China's economic output, its gross domestic product, could match that of the US as early as 2027, and perhaps even sooner," O'Neill wrote.

"Since 2001, China's GDP has risen fourfold, from 1.5 trillion to 6 trillion dollars Economically speaking, China has created three new Chinas in the past decade. And it's likely that the combined GDP of the four BRIC nations will exceed that of the US sometime before 2020," he added.

O'Neill, who was once described as 'Goldman's rock star', also said that the G7 group of nations, America, Germany, Canada, UK, Italy, France and Japan, were "hardly representative" of the global economic order.

He said the huge changes to the world since the G7 was founded in 1975 had not been reflected in its make-up. Only Russia, of the BRICs, has been asked to join an expanded G8.

"Back then, China was economically irrelevant. Today it is the second-largest economy in the world. Brazil is bigger now than Italy. France, Germany and Italy share a single currency. Each of Brazil, India and Russia is bigger than Canada. Yet the G7 still meet and their leaders still behave as though their nations dominate the world," he said.

"If the G7 were being formed today it would have to include China. A case could easily be made for Brazil, India or Russia over Canada, and since the introduction of the euro as a common currency in 1999, there seems little logic behind the individual participation of three eurozone members in the G7, especially the smallest of them, Italy," he added. (ANI)