China overtakes US as world's richest nation

China has surpassed the United States to become the richest nation in the world as global wealth tripled over the past two decades, according to global media reports.

McKinsey & Co., a management consulting company, said in a report that examines the national balance sheets of ten countries representing more than 60 per cent of the world's income.

The world’s net worth rose to an unprecedented $514 trillion in 2020, from an earlier net worth of $156 trillion in 2000, with China taking the largest single share: nearly one-third of the world’s income, reports IANS citing Bloomberg.

“We are now wealthier than we have ever been,” Jan Mischke, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute in Zurich, said in an interview.

Its wealth skyrocketed to $120 trillion from a mere $7.0 trillion in 2000, the year before it joined the World Trade Organization, speeding its economic ascent, the report said.

The US, held back by more muted increases in property prices, saw its net worth more than double over the period, to $90 trillion.