China can achieve 8 pc growth for next 20 years: World Bank

BEIJING: The World Bank today said China has the potential to achieve an annual growth rate of 8 per cent for another 20 years, with latent possibility to outgrow the US economy.

Estimates showed that China's current relative status to the US was similar to Japan's in 1951, and South Korea's in 1977, who were in their high-speed development period, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior VP Justin Yifu Lin said.

"By the year of 2030, measured by purchasing power parity, China's economic size may be twice as large as the US...and China's per capita income would be half of that of the US by then," Chinese state run Xinhua news agency quoted Lin as saying.

Measured in purchasing power parity, China's per capita income was 21 per cent of that of the United States in 2008, he said at the 'China Economic Development Forum', organised by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Lin, however, said China should consider ways to rebalance its economy towards domestic demand, given the inevitable slowdown in the exports and the need to reduce trade surplus.

China also needs to reduce its income disparities and rebalance short-term growth and long-term environmental sustainability, he said.

"It is imperative for China to address the structural imbalances, by removing the remaining distortions in the finance, natural resources and service sectors so as to complete the transition to a well-functioning market economy," he said.