June 29, 2007 | posted by Michael Baxter in IABN |

It’s like watching one of those African runners, someone like Haile Gabriel Selassie. Just when you think the breathless pace can’t continue, he starts going even faster.

Yesterday, the Central Bank of China said it expected the Chinese economy to expand by 10.8 per cent this year, that’s the fastest rate of expansion seen in China in 12 years.

The nation behind the great wall is now close to overtaking the nation that used to be divided by a wall, to become the world’s third biggest economy.

But, inflation is also expected to pick up, with the Chinese central bank predicting a 3.2 per cent hike in Chinese consumer prices in 2007.

Until the Industrial Revolution, the two wealthiest countries in the world were India and China. It seems that this century will see a return to this millennium old status quo, with the Anglo Saxon, European and Japanese dominance of the last two hundred years reduced to no more than a blip.