China's anticipated move to let its currency appreciate may help the nation overtake Japan as the world's second-largest economy, according to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.
A 5 percent revaluation against the dollar could see quarterly gross domestic product exceed Japan's as soon as the July-September period this year, estimated Liu Li-Gang, a Hong Kong-based economist at ANZ. The Chinese economy is likely to vault past Japan before the end of the year, even if the yuan remains stable, Liu said in an e-mailed interview.
The projected shift is another milestone in China's increasing role in the global economy, after last year it became the largest automobile market and supplanted Germany as the top exporter.