China’s second-quarter GDP exceeded that of Japan, putting the country on course to usurp its East Asian neighbor as the world’s second-largest economy this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Tokyo announced Monday that national economic output for April-June reached US$1.29 trillion, short of the US$1.34 trillion disclosed by Beijing. China crept ahead of Japan in the final quarter of last year, when its economy tends to run hotter for seasonal reasons. Analysts see outpacing Japan in an early quarter as a strong sign that China will finish 2010 as the world’s second-largest economy in US dollar terms. The country’s nominal GDP of US$5 trillion is still well short of the US’s US$15 trillion, but it is expected to close the gap within 20 years.
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