Japan Overtaking Britain 1967

Daily Mirror, Tuesday, January 10, 1967

‘Japan is about to pass Britain as an economic power, predicts the magazine U.S. News and World Report.

It says that in recent years Japan’s booming economic growth rate has averaged more than ten per cent compared with Britain’s average of less than three per cent. Britain’s gross national product is still bigger than Japan’s.

But in the past ten years Japan’s has trebled while Britain’s has increased by only 70 per cent.

The magazine article predicts: “At that rate, Japan in a few years will overtake Britain to become the world’s fourth greatest economic power, and may even pass West Germany to rank just behind the U.S. and Russia.”

The article says that Japan’s defeat in World War Two is turning out to have carried with it considerable advantages, while Britain’s victory has brought big disadvantages.

It explains: “Britain is still burdened with huge debts incurred in the war. These are a major cause of the chronic instability of the £. Japan has no such debts”.

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