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The World Ahead | Finance in 2025

India’s economy will soon overtake Japan’s

Will that cause an “India shock” for the world economy?

Illustration of  Japanese, Indian and Chinese athletes racing
Illustration: Maria Frade

By Simon Cox, China economics editor, The Economist

China overtook Japan in 2010 to become the world’s second largest economy, a title Japan had held for almost 40 years. It went on to become the world’s biggest manufacturer, a dominant buyer of commodities and the holder of $3trn of foreign-exchange reserves. Its penetration of foreign manufacturing markets was dubbed the “China shock” and its accumulation of foreign assets a “savings glut”.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2025 under the headline “A new Asian pecking order”

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