[trial.soc.culture.italian] "Economies of European Countries" revisited

bruno@bullet.ecf.toronto.edu (Bruno DiStefano) (05/25/91)

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conclusions that are no longer valid.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