Mexican economy to surpass Canada's in 16 years: report

[AlphaCentauri]

OTTAWA - The economies of Mexico, Brazil, Russia and even Indonesia will surpass Canada's in the coming years as emerging nations recreate the world's financial order, a PricewaterhouseCoopers report said Tuesday.

In the face of such global competition, "Canada's share of the global economy is projected to diminish," said Ed Mansfield, the head of PwC's economics practice in Canada.

"To maintain our competitive position, Canadian businesses will have to differentiate through innovation and technological progress. This will require greater investments in education and capital equipment to promote the productivity gains necessary for economic growth."

In the meantime, the growth engines of the 20th century will become the Tier 2 players of the 21st as countries such as China overtake their now larger rivals in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the report said.

It forecasts: China will surpass the U.S. to become the world's largest economy in 2025; Brazil will overtake Japan by 2050 to move into fourth place; India's economy will grow to 90 per cent of the U.S. economy by 2050; and Germany, the powerhouse of Europe's economy, will also fall before the might of Russia, Mexico and Indonesia.

As for Canada, the report predicted its economy will be surpassed by India in 2014, Brazil in 2016, Russia in 2020, Mexico in 2024 and Indonesia in 2037. It will even be rivalled by Vietnam, whose economy is forecast to grow at 9.8 per cent per year over the next four decades, in 2050.

The report highlighted the fact that strength in emerging economies has now grown beyond the so-called BRIC_countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) into the "Emerging Seven (E7)," which includes the BRIC countries as well as Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey.

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