China and India are two of the world’s largest economies, and both have experienced tremendous growth over the past few decades. However, there was a time when China was poorer than India. On a Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) basis, the GDP of China is 2.38x that of India. In 1998, China crossed the $1 trillion mark in GDP, while India crossed the same mark nine years later in 2007.

When it comes to GDP per capita, both countries have been neck-to-neck. In 1990, India was richer than China when measured by both exchange rate and PPP. This was due to the fact that India had a higher GDP per capita than China, despite the fact that China had a higher GDP.

At the time, India had a higher GDP per capita due to its large population and the fact that it had a larger middle class. This allowed India to benefit from the growth of its middle class, while China’s economy was still largely agrarian. India also had a larger share of the world’s GDP, which meant that it was able to take advantage of the global economy more than China.

However, this changed in the early 2000s when China began to rapidly industrialize and urbanize. This allowed China to take advantage of its large population and the fact that it had a large number of people who were willing to work for low wages. This allowed China to become a major exporter of goods and services, which in turn allowed it to grow its economy at a much faster rate than India.

By the mid-2000s, China had surpassed India in terms of GDP per capita, and by the end of the decade, it had become the world’s second largest economy. This was due to the fact that China had become an export powerhouse, while India had been unable to capitalize on its large population and the growth of its middle class.

In conclusion, China was poorer than India in 1990, but by the mid-2000s, it had become the world’s second largest economy. This was due to the fact that China had become an export powerhouse, while India had been unable to capitalize on its large population and the growth of its middle class. This allowed China to overtake India in terms of GDP per capita, and by the end of the decade, it had become the world’s second largest economy.