It is claimed Americans soon won’t be able to boast “We’re number one” about their economy.

The World Bank has said China could pass the United States this year to become the biggest economy, measured in terms of its currency’s purchasing power.

It bases that on calculations that the currency – the yuan – is actually much stronger than reflected by international foreign exchange rates.

Interestingly, China’s National Bureau of Statistics does not agree, even though it took part in the World Bank study.

It “expressed reservations” about the study’s methodology and “did not agree to publish the headline results for China”.

In non purchasing power parity terms, the US economy is still about 40 percent bigger than China’s.

with AP