MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China ends 2005 as world's fourth largest economy

China is forecasted to end 2005 as the world's fourth largest economy, ahead of Italy, France and Great Britain, once a review of GDP numbers is completed and made public.

China's Statistics Office is scheduled to publish December 20 the first national economic census which is expected to have a higher incidence of the services sector.

According to the South China Morning Post, the Asian giant GDP is expected to undergo an approximately 20% adjustment equivalent to 300 billion US dollars.

If this proves correct, China will jump from seventh to fourth place in the world's economies ranking, overtaking Great Britain.

Analysts argue that even without the census review, China was expected to climb several steps of the ladder since her economy has expanded faster than Italy, France and UK, plus the exchange rate modification revaluating the Yuan 2.5%.

"China can overtake the UK even without the review", said Jim O'Neill from Goldman Sachs, London. "This shows how much China is contributing to the World economy", he added.

China's current GDP is estimated in 1.65 trillion US dollars, and could experience another 15 to 20% push forward.

Dong Tao an economist from Credit Suisse First Boston in Hong Kong said China's GDP has been underestimated for quite some time.

"Medium and small industrial companies are usually not included and the services sector is extremely under estimated", said Dong Tao.

Apparently the legacy of a highly centralized economy under the Communist regime, which gives priority to physical production from government companies, garners information of limited reliability.

This data collecting system tends to neglect the services sector plus the fact that for fiscal reasons Chinese entrepreneurs are not enthusiastic about revealing their earnings.