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Posted By: C-H Very OT - Economic Data - 01/23/03 02:09 PM
I have often wondered how different countries in the world relate economically. I now dug up the Gross Domestic Product figures for European and some other countries. I made a gif-image of the table (below)

Left column: How much you earn in US dollars. Right column: How much goods you can buy for the money. (An advanced Big Mac index)

I felt it might be relevant when we discuss electric safety in different countries. One should not forget all the lives electricity saves each day. Even a dodgy installation without grounding is safer than no installation.

[Linked Image from i.kth.se]
Posted By: djk Re: Very OT - Economic Data - 01/24/03 02:47 AM
Interesting.. any chance you could tabulate them into a league table starting at the top in terms of purchasing power on one and in terms of gross gdp/capita in the other [Linked Image] ?
Posted By: C-H Re: Very OT - Economic Data - 01/24/03 06:55 PM
It is always very popular to rank countries, and GDP rankings are often used in the political debate. This is fine if the differences are significant, but as you can see several countries are very close economically. The data above is the revised OECD data for 2001 (yes, 2001) that just came out. The correction of some details sent Sweden from number 17 to number 11 on the global list.

Numbers usually look more accurate than they are, just like a digital voltmeter looks a lot more accurate than it really is.
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