China Takes Over As World's Second Largest Economy - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Economic figures coming out of Japan show that China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, behind the United States.

Japan reported that its economy contracted by 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, better than some analysts predicted but Japan's reported GDP of $5.474 trillion comes in behind China's reported $5.879 trillion.

Sliding consumer consumption and demand in Japan in the last three months of 2010 were blamed for the contraction.

compiled from agency reports