 Until the early 19th century, the economies of East Asia together was larger than today's high-income economies combined measured in purchasing power parity terms.The share of China and East Asia declined significantly up until the 1950s.By the 1960s, East Asia began to make its mark on the world economy when it began growing faster than the high-income economies of the Western World and today their share accounts for one-third of the global output and one-half in PPP terms.