From The Korea Times:

The Chinese economy, which has been growing at about 9 percent a year, took a big leap forward last week when the government announced that, as a result of a year-long national economic survey, it had revised its GDP upward to about $2 trillion for 2004, an increase of 16.8 percent, making the economy the sixth largest in the world, overtaking Italy.

Given the higher base for 2004, it appears highly likely that when the final figures for 2005 come in, China will have overtaken France and Britain as well, to become the world’s fourth largest economy, after the United States which last year registered a GDP of $11.7 trillion, Japan and Germany. In purchasing power parity terms, China is already the world’s second largest economy, exceeded only by the United States.