Finance, Forex and Investments

In the future,who will have the bigger economy: China or India?

I mean ultimately,will India surpass China? Or will China remain the richest for the next "Chinese century"

Public Comments

1. China will collapse because it doesn't have freedom. India will become economically dominant for a while but ultimately America will prevail because we have freedom and diversity, respect for human rights and civil liberties. Those thing ensure stability and progress
2. China. Unless India does away with the caste system and reforms their legal system to where business can move expeditiously. Both will never happen.
3. China China has the bigger potential for growth, because it has a much larger, more diverse geography. This gives it access to more resources. Politics can get in the way for both countries, so potential doesn't mean actual. But in the long run, I expect the country with the most resources to grow more.
4. India is the biggest democracy in the world. Unfortunately, it is a country where virtually nothing works properly, especially the justice system. China will remain a dominant force economically, exceeding India easily. The Chinese government has many obstacles, including insufficient number of jobs for people with a higher education, inefficient farming and food production, and a small middle class. In order to grow its economy, the middle class needs to grow significantly, and then the Chinese can actually afford the goods manufactured in China. Right now, 900 million (out of 1.4 billion) Chinese live and work on farms. You've caught glimpses of Beijing and Shanghai on TV, but those two cities are not representative of an average Chinese working/living environment.
5. Why can't people understand that this is an unanswerable question? The biggest thing we (i.e. economists) should have learned over the last few years is that we are rubbish, really rubbish, at making predictions. Yes, China is doing a little better than India but, hell, all sorts of things could happen to destabilise either country in the next few years.