It is impossible to know for certain yet but economists may look back and say this was the moment China overtook Japan to become the world’s second biggest economy.

Official figures showed the economy expanded by 8.7% in 2009 to $4.9tn. That figure is the size of Japan’s economy in 2008.

Japan’s numbers for 2009 are not out until next month, but are expected to show a contraction of around 6%.

What is not in doubt is their trajectories. China is powering ahead while Japan is slipping behind.

It should be remembered, though, that as China’s population is 10 times the size of Japan’s, even if its overall economy is bigger, Japanese people remain vastly richer than those in China.

During the 1980s it was Japan which was rising, and some predicted then it would one day even overtake America. But then there was a crash followed by two decades of stagnation.