China to become world largest economy in 15 years

China is expected to overtake the United States in 2028 to become the world's largest economy, according to a research report released Thursday.

The London-based Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said in its annual report 2013 that China's gross domestic product (GDP) in U.S. dollars would overtake the United States in 2028.

"This is later than some analysts have suggested and reflects the continuing performance of the U.S. as the West's strongest economy and the slowing down of the Chinese economy," the report said.

Based on CEBR's forecasts, India will overtake Japan in 2028 to become the world's third largest economy.

It said: "Japan is likely to follow a weak currency policy for the foreseeable future which means that its GDP in dollar terms gets overtaken by India earlier than we had previously expected."

Brazil overtook the UK in 2011 to become the world's 6th largest economy. But CEBR said that the country had since fallen back but would overtake both the UK and Germany to become the world's fifth largest economy in 2023.

"In 2014, while the Football World Cup is held in Brazil, it still looks likely that Britain will have a larger economy than Brazil," it said.

The annual report issued by the CEBR, a leading economic consultancy in Britain, covers the 30 largest economies in the world.