In their report "The World in 2050", HSBC Bank predicts that the world's economic output will triple by 2050. They admit that their estimates are optimistic - assumptions are that major countries can avoid wars, or even trade wars, and defeat the Malthusian threats of food and water limits. They expect that humans will overcome the energy crisis and ecology problems; estimated investments of $50 trillion in energy alternatives will minimize energy-supply problems.

After averaging 2% over the past decade, world annual GDP growth will rise to 3%. China's GDP will rise to $24.6 trillion (constant 2000 $), just ahead of the US at $22.3 trillion. China and the US will be the G2, far ahead of the others. At $ 8.2 trillion, India will be the third-largest, while most of Europe will fall far behind.

The per capita income of China and India will jump 8 times, continuing their growth. Still, both countries will not match US living standards; Americans will still be 3 times richer than the Chinese in 2050.

Britain slips to No. 6, with GDP at $3.6 trillion, far ahead of Italy and France, and almost level with Germany, which will remain Europe's biggest economy. The GDP of small countries like Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria, will fall below the top 30.

China's strong GDP is predicted to start slowing in 2015, as their rapidly aging population starts reducing their workforce. By contrast, India's young population is surging, and growth will soon surpass China. Within a decade, perhaps two, India is expected to become the world's manufacturing leader.

Demographics are important. America’s high fertility rate (2.1) will allow it too keep adding manpower long after China's workforce has begun to shrink in the 2020s, and even as India starts to age in the 2040s.

The low fertility rates of many countries will cause their steady population decline unless they become more open to immigration. Japan is already approaching a serious decline; its population has been falling since 2005, and will shrink 37% by 2050.

More than 700 million people will become "middle class", reducing the differential between the first and second worlds. The already rich world will continue to suffer from anemic growth; the law of diminishing returns applies: how much more can they grow? But emerging countries will advance much more quickly, accounting for more than 50% of global growth. Upward mobility will fuel their dynamism and creativity.

BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are already spoiled - they've already become somewhat arrogant, picking fights with outsiders more than watching their own internal corruption. Russia is the BRIC anomaly - its population is shrinking fast, and wealth comes more from natural resources than from innovation. Some say that South Africa will become the S in BRICS.

But, America, Europe and BRICS, get ready for some steep competition from emerging companies and countries.