India's economy to grow to almost 90 percent of US economy by 2050: PwC

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"The global center of economic gravity is already shifting to China, India and other large emerging economies and our analysis suggests that this process has a lot further to run," said John Hawksworth, head of macroeconomics at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. "India could grow to almost 90 percent of the size of the US by 2050."

According to Hawksworth, "China could overtake the US in around 2025 to become the world's largest economy and will continue to grow to around 130 percent of the size of the US by 2050."

There are other surprising findings in store. "Brazil seems likely to overtake Japan by 2050 to move into fourth place, while Russia, Mexico and Indonesia all have the potential to have economies larger than those of Germany or the UK by the middle of this century," the economist said.

But, the fastest mover, according to Hawksworth, could be "Vietnam, with a potential growth rate of almost 10 percent per annum in real dollar terms that could push it up to around 70 percent of the size of the UK economy by 2050."

According to the report, India rather than China, tops the growth league table, a reflection of India's working age population which is projected by UN to continue to grow at a healthy rate unlike China, and the fact that there is greater scope for productivity and education levels to rise across Indian population, enabling the country to catch up with Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in the long run.

The key to achieving the growth potential, indicated by the report, will be establishing and maintaining a macroeconomic, legal and public policy environment conducive to trade, investment, increased education levels and hence economic growth. After 2030, the younger and faster growing Indian population is expected to age, experiencing a gradual deceleration.

The report also highlights that there are many other alternatives worth considering, depending on the nature of the investment and the risk tolerance of the investor.

Nigeria, while high-risk, has the long-term potential to overtake South Africa to be the largest African economy by 2050. The Philippines, Egypt and Bangladesh also have high growth potential but also high-risk levels.

However, according to Hawksworth, "The rapid growth of the emerging economies does not mean the demise of the established OECD economies. In fact it should prove to be a boost for them through growing income from exports and overseas investments, even as the OECD share of world GDP declines."

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