By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Former World Bank chief James Wolfensohn said Friday Russia would be world’s ninth largest economy by 2050 with China and India leading from the front, despite the leadership’s goal of bringing the country into the top five in 12 years.
In January, former president Vladimir Putin set the ambitious task of joining the world’s five leading economies by 2020.
Wolfensohn, while addressing an international conference on corporate management and globalization in Moscow, said that China and India would become top two largest economies of the world by 2050, followed by the US, Indonesia and Japan.
Next in line would come Germany, Britain, France, Russia and Vietnam, the former World Bank head said.
The World Bank calculated Russia’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP) for 2007 at $1.29 trillion, putting the country in 12th place globally, close behind Brazil.
Wolfensohn stressed the need to develop market competition in Africa under international rules and standards, calling it a difficult but necessary task.