China to have biggest economy by 2030

China is likely to have the world's largest economy by 2030 - surpassing the United States, the US National Intelligence Council said in a report released this week.

The country's rise will signify a shift in power from North America and Europe to Asia, the organization said.

The age of US and European dominance may be waning as emerging economies become increasingly important, the council said in its Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds report.

The organization is an analytical arm of the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

"China alone will probably have the largest economy in the world, surpassing that of the United States a few years before 2030," it said. "Meanwhile, the economies of Europe, Japan, and Russia are likely to continue their slow relative declines."

It also said China's total GDP will be 2.4 times as large as Japan's by 2030 and that "Asia will have surpassed North America and Europe combined in terms of global power, based upon GDP, population size, military spending, and technological investment".

The report is the first by the intelligence organization to give a specific prediction of when China will become the world's largest economy.

Still, the US is likely to remain "first among equals" in the division of global power, the report said.

We recommend:
'Boeing Dreamliner riddled with errors	HK tops China City Competitiveness Ranking	China's electric rail mileage ranked world's first
10th China Int'l Automobile Exhibition concludes	Harbin-Dalian high-speed railway starts operation	New wave of communication tools
Alibaba's 2012 transaction volume hits 1 trln yuan	China's savings rate world's highest	iPhone 5 launch event held in Seoul, S. Korea