ABSTRACT
The last two decades of the 20th century, beginning circa 1980, witnessed rapid economic growth in China and India. In the first decade of the 21st century, the rapid growth has sustained in China and accelerated in India. This remarkable growth performance provides a sharp contrast to the world economy over the same period and to the preceding 100 years in these two Asian giants. Indeed, except for Japan and the East Asian Four, economic history provides few parallels of such rapid and sustained growth. The past quarter of a century has thus witnessed the return of the forgotten dragon and the vanishing tiger to the world economy. So much so that it is no longer possible to consider prospects for the world economy in 2025 or 2050 without placing China and India at centre stage. During the period since 1980, Africa provides a sharp contrast. Its economic performance ranged from retrogression to stagnation.
