20100730 1848 Global News.

China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, the fruit of three decades of rapid growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. pricorn23: Depending on how fast its exchange rate rises, China is on course to overtake the United States and vault into the No.1 spot sometime around 2025, according to projections by the World Bank, Goldman Sachs and others

Though the rate increased from 20.05 percent in the first three months of the year, the National Statistics Institute (external link) said the number of people working actually increased. Still, the overall unemployment rate rose to its highest level since 1997 because of a large increase in the work force. Spain crawled out of recession in the first quarter of this year after nearly two years of economic contraction and has been a focus of concern in recent months, as investors fretted that its bloated deficit and troubled banking sector could necessitate a Greek-style bailout.