London – home of UK saving and investment in many respects – is set to outstrip Paris and Chicago as the fourth largest economy among world cities by 2020, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo will be ahead of London by 2020 but the capital’s rate of growth of 3% will outperform those of its rivals, entailing that the capital is a significant saving and investment magnet in the world economy in the 21st century.

By 2020, the wealth generated by London’s 8.5 million people should rise from $452bn in 2005 to $708bn.

The capital’s performance has been boosted by soaring figures in the City’s financial firms, with bonuses taken home by top traders exceeding £7.5bn this winter according to the Centre for Economic and Business Research, confirming that the saving and investment sector is still strong in London.

PwC head of macroeconomics John Hawksworth said: “London’s strength in financial and business services, and as a centre of saving and investment activity, is a product of history – it has been a centre of excellence ranging back centuries, combining trust with a fairly liberalised regulatory regime.

“We continue to assume that regulatory bodies and Government will continue to sustain this, so that they do not frighten people away.”