China's GDP Growth Rose To 13 Percent In 2007

January 14, 2009 10:53 a.m. EST

Beijing, China (AHN) - China had dethroned Germany as the world's third largest economy in 2007 based on revised gross domestic product growth rates Beijing released Wednesday. According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, the country's GDP grew 13 percent from the original estimate of 11.9 percent.

It was the fastest growth in 14 years when China logged a 13.1 percent GDP expansion in 1994.

The NBS said China's products and service in 2007 was worth $3.76 trillion (25.73 trillion yuan). For the same year Germany churned out a GDP of $3.3 trillion (2.49 trillion euro).

The World Bank's Beijing office confirmed the computations. World Bank economist Ardo Hanssen said, quoted by Deutsche Welle, "As far as I can seem the basic approach to the calculation is correct, although we have to run the numbers to double check."

But experts warn China may not hold on to the third spot for long since its GDP growth rate is expected to fall to single digit in 2008 and between 5 to 8 percent in 2009 due to the global economic crisis. But the spot may not necessarily return to Germany since the EU nation is also in a recession.

Stephen Green of the Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai said GDP should not be the sole basis in determining a country's progress but per capita income. Using this criterion Germany, which was on 23rd place in the global per capita income list in 2007, was way ahead of China which was just on the 132nd spot.