BEIJING (AFP) – China has moved ahead of Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, a senior central bank official said in an interview published Friday.

Yi Gang, a vice-governor of the People's Bank of China and also the head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), did not explain how he had arrived at the figures, according to the comments posted on the SAFE website.

''China is actually now already the world's second-largest economy,'' Yi said in an interview with China Reform magazine.