Mar. 2, 2011 (China Knowledge) - China, now the world's second-largest economy, may experience an average economic growth of more than 8% over the next ten years, and see its gross domestic product reach RMB 100 trillion in 2020, said a senior official with the National Development and Reform Commission, sources reported.

Chen Dongqi, vice president of the Academy of Macroeconomic Research, a think tank under the NDRC, said that China's GDP in 2020 will be equivalent to that of the U.S. in the same year, and its per-capita GDP will equivalent to one fifth of the U.S.', up from one tenth at present.

Chen added that China will not see a lost decade as in Japan and a middle income trap as in Latin America partly because it has a large population that will generate robust demand.

Over the last decade, China's annual economic growth was about 10%. Chen estimated that China's economy will expand by at a rate of about 9% during the period from 2011 to 2015.

In 2010, China's GDP grew 10.3% year on year to RMB 39.8 trillion.