Luxury consumption

Several international organizations have made predictions about when China's luxury purchasing power will overtake that of Japan. Some suggest it could happen this year, some claim it will be next year, while others claim it will be 2015.

But not every case of our country's transcending a big economy is plausible.

When China surpassed Japan in terms of GDP in 2010 and grew into the world's second economic powerhouse, economists reminded us that this should not necessarily mean we're a leader. The country lags far behind others in terms of GDP per capita.