China's economy not as mighty as thought

The World Bank said the economies of China and India are about 40 percent smaller than earlier estimates after it revised calcuations using consumers' relative purchasing power to measure economic might.

The new figures released by the World Bank on Monday differ from conventional gross domestic product figures, which are calculated by simply converting local statistics into U.S. dollars — but don't take into account the wide variations in the purchasing power of a dollar from country to country.

A dollar converted into 7.4 yuan will generally buy more food in China, for example, than it would buy in the U.S.

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