China has passed Germany and Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, the World Bank confirmed yesterday, as it unveiled a new report examining the purchasing power of global economies. The report also found that developing countries' share of the $58,600bn (

The rising cost of basic foods risks wiping out a decade of efforts to combat global -poverty and could trigger further riots in the world's poorest countries, leading multilateral institutions warned yesterday. The World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the International Monetary Fund were unanimous in concluding that the rising appetite of the bio-fuels industry was part of the reason for the increase in food prices.