It's been a while since I looked at world stats, so thought I would take a look. Here's a few estimates in US dollars:
1. World GDP According to the World Bank, World GDP for 2002 (expected to rise by 2.5 percent in 2003; the IMF thinks 3.1 percent) was $32.3 trillion (GNI $31.5 trillion), comprising the folowing contributions: USA about 32%, EU 20%, Germany about 12% G7 countries except USA and Germany about 15% Rest of the world about 34%, of which of which China about 4%. GNP per capita following the Atlas method is: $430 (ppp method $2,040) for low income countries, $1,840 for middle income countries (ppp method $5,630), and $26,310 (ppp method $27,590) for high income countries, The world average GNP per capita of $6,060 following the Atlas method (ppp method $7670). So the average per capita GDP for low income countries is about 1.6% of the average GDP per capita for high income countries. It turns out that travel & tourism is one of the largest sectors of the world economy these days, responsible for 10.1% of world GDP and about 200 million jobs worldwide. There's a lot of money in airlines and hotels. According to BIS, the value of shares traded on stockmarkets worldwide is currently about 40% of world GDP, while the World Bank says in 2001 market capitalisation of all listed companies in the world was $32.1 trillion, nearly equal to world GDP. According to the WTO, the total value of world trade (goods and services imported and exported) is about one-third of world GDP (but GDP includes the value of significant non-market activity). 2. Foreign financial claims According to the World Bank, in 2001, the total external debt of low and middle income countries owed to nonresidents in foreign currency (public+private debt, IMF credits, plus short-term debt) was about $1.4 trillion. According to the International Bank of Settlements, the total of outstanding foreign financial claims registered (loans, debt securities, derivatives, equities and risk transfers) by bank and non-bank financial institutions (excluding the USA) in the second quarter of 2003 was US$14.5 trillion. The developed countries accounted for $12 trillion of this. $7.3 trillion of foreign financial claims were on Western European countries alone. Foreign claims of euro area financial institutions are about $6.7 trillion at the moment. Total foreign claims on "emerging markets" are about $1.4 trillion. Globally, Jubilee estimates there is something like $100 trillion of debt outstanding, as against $33 trillion of income to repay those debts. BIS says "The proportion of global saving needed to finance the US external imbalance has more than tripled since 1997" (BIS 73rd Annual report). The debt service ratio for Latin America in 2001 was 19.4 percent of exports, as compared with 11.4 percent of exports for Europe. World investment in bonds & securities is growing very fast. The US Treasury Bill now seem to play the part that gold once played. As financial instability increases, many countries beef up their US dollar reserves, usually in the form of US Treasury Bills. This is effectively a low interest rate loan to the USA, but simultaneously countries also tend to borrow still more from abroad (including from the USA, the World Bank, and the IMF) at higher interest rates. Capital flight (both legal and illegal capital) and outflows of FDI is said to be around the $100 billion mark every year, leaving poor countries for banks in Switzerland, the UK and the USA especially. In 2002, developing countries remitted almost $1 billion in debt service EVERY DAY to their rich country creditors (Jubilee estimate) Corporate profits remitted from developing countries where the corporate branches operate, to headquarters in the rich countries are said to total about $55 billion in 2001. 3. Investment Despite falling real interest rates, world business investment remains weak, probably a response to overvalued assets (falling asset values and falling share prices), financial scandals and financial defaults, tightening credit conditions in Europe and Japan for smaller firms, lower average profit rates, and constraints in the ability to set prices due to intensified competition. Since about 1998, average profitability slid down almost everywhere, with a slight upturn in the last year. The rate of increase in average unit labour costs is declining in Europe, the USA and Japan, and the rate of increase in average gross wages is slowing down as well in the developed countries. 4. Household spending Aggregate houshold spending in the developed countries is holding up rather well, mainly due to easier credit. The rate of increase in household debts in Europe, Japan and the USA continued to be larger than the rate of increase in household disposable income, so aggregate demand growth is sustained by an increasing proportion of debt. Total mortgage debt in the USA alone rose to a total of $6.2 trillion, in the first quarter of 2003 (personal bankruptcies in the US are rising at 9 percent on a year-to-year basis; the quarterly rise in business bankruptcies is about 6 percent). Despite weaker consumer confidence, US households continued to spend vigorously in the last year, especially durables and housing - they benefited from lower policy rates, zero interest financing, lower mortgage rates, rising house prices and reduced transactions costs, hence home owners refinanced massively. The same trend is visible in the UK and Australasia. Debt service costs remained relatively low in the USA, even though assets to debt ratios rose because of falling share prices. According to BIS, except for Japan, the general average ratio of household liabilities to household assets seems to remain stable at about 15 percent. World trade The total value of world merchandise trade in 2002 was $4.9 trillion, and the total value of world commercial services trade in 2002 was $5.5 trilion (excluding significant re-exports), giving a total value of world trade of $10.4 trillion. In 2002, the top ten players in the world's commercial services trade are: USA ( 17.4% of world exports, of 14.3% world imports), Germany (6.2% of world exports, of 9.4% world imports), Japan (4.2% of world exports, 6.9% of world imports) , France (5.5% of world exports, 4.2% of world imports), China (2.9% of world exports, of 2.9% world imports), UK ( 7.9% of world exports, of 6.4% world imports), Italy ( 3.8% of world exports, of 4% world imports), Spain (4% of world exports, 2.4% of world imports) Netherlands ( 3.6% of world exports, of 3.7% of world imports), Belgium/Luxemburg ( 3.5% of world exports, 3.1% of world imports). (In addition, Canada represents 2.4% of world exports, and 2.9% of world imports). Totalling up the figures, in 2002 the world's top ten countries exported 59 percent of the world's commercial services by dollar value, and adding Canada, the figure is over 61 percent. The top ten countries import 54 percent of the world's commercial services by dollar value. In 2002, the top ten players in the world's merchandise trade (i.e. traded tangible goods) were: USA (10.8% of world exports, of 18 % world imports), Germany (9.5% of world exports, 7.4% of world imports), Japan (6.5% of world exports, of 5% world imports) , France (5.1% of world exports, 4.9% of world imports), China (5.1% of world exports, 4.4% of world imports), UK (4.3% of world exports, of 3.6% world imports), Canada (3.9% of world exports, of 3.4% world imports), Italy (3.9% of world exports, of 3.6% world imports), Netherlands (3.8% of world exports, 3.3% of world imports), Belgium (3.3% of world exports, 2.9% of world imports). So, in 2002 the world's top ten countries exported 56 percent of the world's goods by dollar value, and they imported about 56.5 percent of the world's goods by dollar value. It's kinda strange, a bit mysterious, I gotta take it oh so so serious - Roxettes
