China slips a notch in GDP ranking

China's gross domestic product rank dropped to number 7 from number 6, while GDP per capita jumped one place to 110th rank from 111th rank, the International Monetary Fund has said.

The top ten GDPs in the year 2003 were of United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, China, Canada, Spain and Mexico, the latest data released by IMF says.

Hong Kong had a GDP ranking no 31 and Taiwan ranked no 20, both dropping three places from their previous ranks.

The Chinese economy kept a rapid growth despite outbreak of SARS epidemic and the infliction of natural disaster, the report said.

In 2003 China's GDP was $1409.9 billion, which has been one of the fastest increases since 1997.

It accounted for 3.9 per cent of total world GDP and increased 0.1 percentages over the previous year. Dropping one place over the previous year it took the no 7 place worldwide.

Xinhua news agency reported the primary reason for a drop in China's GDP in 2003 was appreciation of Euro against dollar and Chinese currency, Renminbi's comparative stable exchange rate to dollar.

The IMF statistics also show that in 2003, China's per capita GDP was $1,087, ranking no 110 worldwide.

It jumped one place but was still among the mid/low-ranking countries. Though still small compared with those of developed countries, China's per capita GDP for the first time exceeded the $1,000 mark.

The countries whose per capita GDPs ranked among the top ten were Luxemburg, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, the United States, Iceland, Japan, Sweden and Qatar.