China will overtake US as world’s biggest economy by 2028, new report predicts

China will overtake the US to become the world’s biggest economy in 2028, according to a new report.

The country’s performance in shrugging off the effects of the coronavirus pandemic means it will now likely surpass its western rival five years earlier than previously predicted, research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research shows.

It is expected to have grown by two per cent in 2020 – making it the only major economy to have actually expanded this year. By contrast the US is estimated to have contracted by five per cent over the last 12 months.

“The pandemic has not affected all economies equally,” the CEBR said in its annual league table of global growth prospects.