Xref: utzoo soc.culture.british:10907 soc.culture.europe:1002 soc.culture.french:5331 soc.culture.german:4390 soc.culture.greek:4497 soc.culture.nordic:6548 soc.culture.spain:19 trial.soc.culture.italian:234 Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.europe,soc.culture.french,soc.culture.german,soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.nordic,soc.culture.spain,trial.soc.culture.italian Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!news-server.ecf!bruno From: bruno@bullet.ecf.toronto.edu (Bruno DiStefano) Subject: "Economies of European Countries" revisited Message-ID: <1991May25.061432.23692@bullet.ecf.toronto.edu> Language: English Organization: University of Toronto, Engineering Computing Facility Date: Sat, 25 May 91 06:14:32 GMT On May 13, 1991 Alessandro Giua (giua@ecse.rpi.edu) and Rolf Munger (rolf@ral.rpi.edu) posted an interesting article, "Economies of European Countries" on soc.culture.europe. I liked very much the article, because, it provided good, solid, factual information, that can be useful to inform and educate. Given the fact that soc.culture.europe is characterized by a rather low signal-to-noise ratio, this posting was rather refreshing. However, part of the information was dated, because of its source. As most figures were expressed in terms of US$, the reader may be mislead into conclusions that are no longer valid. The US$ has lost quite a bit of its value since 1988. Relative positions are different now. Instead of just posting new information, I decided to leave the information posted by Alessandro Giua and Rolf Munger and to add the new figures. This should help to spot some economic trends. ----------------- original posting by Giua and Munger --------------------- The following information is taken from the French publication: "Atlaseco 1990", published by Edition du Serail. The atlas contains data for the year 1988 on all countries of the world (203 are listed) obtained by the 'World Bank' and the 'Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development' (OECD). The first column (GNP/In) contains the Gross National Product per Inhabitant in US$: this is a measure of the Wealth of the country. The second colum (W) contains the position in a list of world countries ordered by GNP/In. The third column (GNP) contains the Gross National Product in billion US$: this is a measure of the economic Power of the country. The fourth colum (P) contains the position in a list of world countries ordered by GNP. You will note that a few non-european countries are reported in the list as a basis for comparison: they are marked with a @. The countries that are part of the ECC are marked with a *. We have computed the GPA/In and GPA for the EEC nations considered as a single entity. ----------------- end of original posting by Giua and Munger -------------- I am following the same format using 1990 data as published by a joint report of the Economist and the Globe & Mail at the beginning of 1991. The 1991 data are columns 6 and 7 (the 2 right-most columns). My source does not report data about some countries. For them I am leaving an empty space. I am not reporting any ranking, because it would be meaningless, given the number of missing entries. -----------------------------------------------================= COUNTRY | GNP/In | W | GNP | P | GNP/In | GNP | | US $ | /203 | 10^9$ | /203 | US$ | 10^9$ | -----------------------------------------------================= Switzerland | 27,540 | 1 | 183 | 15 | 35,820 | 242 | Liechtenstein | 26,780 | 2 | 1 | 152 | | | Iceland | 23,890 | 4 | 7 | 82 | | | Japan @ | 23,250 | 5 | 2,841 | 2 | 27,030 | 3,360 | Norway | 21,600 | 6 | 90 | 27 | 27,830 | 118 | Sweden | 21,235 | 7 | 178 | 16 | 29,530 | 250 | Canada @ | 20,950 | 8 | 479 | 8 | 23,800 | 636 | Denmark * | 20,950 | 8 | 107 | 24 | 27,320 | 140 | Finland | 20,930 | 10 | 103 | 25 | 30,070 | 150 | USA @ | 19,495 | 11 | 4,795 | 1 | 23,500 | 5,900 | Germany W+E * | 17,450 | 12 | 1,351 | 4 | 21,500 | 1,700 | France * | 16,900 | 14 | 994 | 5 | 22,420 | 1,120 | Luxemburg * | 16,845 | 15 | 6 | 78 | | | Austria | 16,715 | 16 | 126 | 21 | 22,850 | 174 | Netherlands * | 15,380 | 20 | 227 | 14 | 19,710 | 294 | Australia @ | 14,700 | 21 | 242 | 13 | 18,920 | 327 | Italy * | 14,280 | 23 | 820 | 6 | 20,450 | 1,180 | UK * | 14,070 | 24 | 802 | 7 | 16,010 | 922 | Belgium * | 14,000 | 25 | 147 | 20 | 21,230 | 210 | Ireland * | 8,840 | 39 | 31 | 51 | 13,070 | 46 | Spain * | 8,475 | 41 | 339 | 11 | 13,450 | 532 | Czechoslovakia | 7,250 | 45 | 113 | 23 | | | Cyprus | 6,864 | 51 | 4 | 98 | | | USSR | 6,020 | 52 | 1,718 | 3 | 3,470 | 1,010 | Malta | 5,353 | 58 | 2 | 123 | | | Bulgaria | 5,350 | 59 | 51 | 40 | | | Greece * | 5,280 | 60 | 53 | 38 | 7,450 | 75 | Roumania | 4,280 | 67 | 95 | 26 | | | Portugal * | 3,975 | 70 | 41 | 44 | 6,020 | 63 | Yugoslavia | 2,599 | 81 | 61 | 34 | | | Hungary | 2,550 | 84 | 26 | 55 | 2,657 | 28 | Poland | 1,740 | 98 | 66 | 33 | 1,500 | 57 | Turkey | 1,275 | 109 | 67 | 32 | 1,877 | 106 | Albania | 800 | 136 | 3 | 110 | | | -----------------------------------------------================= EEC | 14,368 | | 4,918 | | 6,282 ----------------------------------------------- 6 Lux. old data ------- 6,288 ^^^^^ +49.78% ----------------- original posting by Giua and Munger --------------------- It seems that the EEC members are economically the most powerful European contries (see Germany, France, Italy, UK) but not the wealthiest European counties (such as Switzerland, Norway, Sweden). According to the Atlaseco, the countries can be classified into: WEALTHY : GNP/In > 8,000$ MORE OR LESS WEALTHY : 8,000$ > GNP/In > 2,000$ MORE OR LESS POOR : 2,000$ > GNP/In > 500$ POOR : 500$ > GNP/In The EEC contries belong to the class of 'wealthy' countries with the exception of Greece and Portugal that are considered 'more or less wealthy'. ----------------- end of original posting by Giua and Munger -------------- CAVEAT ====== The above data is not static in nature. Even the 1990 data is destined to be obsolete (for instance: Italian TV's TG1 newscast announced few nights ago that the UK has passed ahead of Italy in terms of GDP during the first 3 months of 1991. The trend is irreversible for 1991). The EEC Countries improvement in terms of total GDP (+49.78%) is an illusion, due to the changed value of the US$. Had we measured the total GDP in terms of a different currency, the improvement could have been much less. However, as all natural resources and industrial good are paid in US$, it is acceptable to use the US$ as a reference. All data related to the USSR, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, and all former communist countries is misleading: it looks much lower than it is in reality. Communist economist use NMP (net material product) (that is GDP minus depreciation). It is highly improper to compare NMP and GDP, because countries with older infrastructure look more poor. For instance, if we were to use NMP, the USA would look much less wealthy, probably a 20 --> 30% less wealthy, because of the aging infrastructure (i.e: roads, bridges, industrial plants, etc.). Neither GNP nor GDP are available for these countries. WARNING ======= Conclusions on standard of leaving, wealth, etc. derived from the above table may be meaningless. DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN MYSELF and GIUA & MUNGER ============================================= Giua & Munger:".... the Gross National Product per Inhabitant in US$: this is a measure of the Wealth of the country." I claim that "for industrial countries the GNP/head is a measure of efficiency, while for resource-based countries (i.e: Kuwait) is meaningless". {This may take a stream of postings by itself} -- Bruno Di Stefano bruno@bullet.ecf.toronto.edu