Frequently Asked Questions
Macroeconomic comparison tools
GDP per capita (2007)
The national output, divided by the population, expressed in U.S dollars per person.
Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database
GDP/Cap growth -1 year
The percentage change in GDP per capita from 2006 to 2007.
Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database
GDP/Cap growth -5 year
The average annual percentage change in GDP per capita during the five years to 2007.
Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database
Economic freedom index
How free is a country′s economy? The 2006 Index of Economic Freedom measures 161 countries by 50 criteria, divided into 10 broad groups.
Low scores are more desirable. A higher score means more government interference in the economy, and less economic freedom.
- Free – 80 to 100
- Mostly Free – 70 to 79.9;
- Moderately Free – 60 to 69.9
- Mostly Unfree – 50 - 59.9
- Repressed – 0 to 49.9
Source: The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal
Economic freedom index – 5 year change
Increased economic freedom is strongly associated with high GDP growth. We measure the change in the freedom score over five years:
- Greatly Improved
- Improved
- Neutral
- Worse
- Much Worse
Source: The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal
Growth competitiveness
The Growth Competitiveness Index (GCI) aims to quantify the quality of the macroeconomic environment, the state of a country′s public institutions, and its level of technological readiness.
Higher competitiveness scores are more desirable:
- Very High – 5.51 to 7
- High – 4.51 to 5.50
- Medium – 3.51 to 4.50
- Low – 3.01 to 3.50
- Very low – 0 to 3.00
Source: World Economic Forum
Property rights index
The 2007 Property Rights Index, a subcomponent of the Index of Economic freedom, measures the degree to which a country′s laws protect private property rights, and the degree to which its government enforces those laws.
It also assesses the likelihood that private property will be expropriated and analyzes the independence of the judiciary, the existence of corruption within the judiciary, and the ability of individuals and businesses to enforce contracts.
The more certain the legal protection of property, the higher a country′s score; similarly, the greater the chances of government expropriation of property, the lower a country′s score.
Higher scores are more desirable (on a scale of 0-100).
Source: The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal
Currency +/- valuation
This is a cost of living indicator. It roughly shows how much a bundle of goods costing US$1 in the US would cost in another country. We use the IMF′s nominal GDP and PPP GDP figures.
Note that currency undervaluation (as measured by PPP) is not a good predictor of future currency movements.
Source: Calculated using figures from the IMF World Economic Outlook Database.
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