Global economic power index shows India and China moving ahead; Increasing relevance of KISMT economies.
A finance ministry working paper prepared by a group headed by Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu has revealed that some of the African countries have also moved up considerably in the global economic pyramid in the 21st century.
The paper, ‘The evolving dynamics of global economic power in the post-crisis world: Revelations from a new Index of Government Economic Power’, has developed index of government economic power (IGEP), which was shared briefly in the Economic Survey 2010-11, on the basis of which economic power of 112 countries has been measured for the period 2000-2009.
The detailed paper is now out and the key findings include a steady rise of the large emerging economies, especially China, India and Brazil, together with the re-emergence of Russia in the new millennium.
Continuing importance of the US and Germany, and also Japan despite its long period of slow economic growth has also been captured in the paper.
The more interesting finding, however, is increasing relevance of a group of ‘growth markets’ referred as the KISMT economies — Korea (South), Indonesia, South Africa, Mexico and Turkey.
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Another key trend noticed by the paper is the advancement of African countries like Angola, Nigeria and Tanzania.
The index is composed of four variables: government revenues, foreign currency reserves, export of goods and services, and human capital.
The 2009 results show that the US led the list of the top 10 countries, followed by China, Japan, Germany, India, Russia, France, Brazil, South Africa and Italy.
In 2000, too, the US topped the rankings, followed by Japan, China, Germany, France, the UK, Italy, India, Canada and Brazil.
In 2009, the lowest 10 spots went to (103) Togo, (104) Barbados, (105) Suriname, (106) Guyana, (107) Sierra Leone, (108) Cape Verde, (109) Belize, (110) Gambia, (111) the Solomon Islands and (112) Tonga.
While in 2000, these places were held by Rwanda, Togo, Guyana, Suriname, Belize, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Cape Verde, the Solomon Islands and Tonga.
Among the top-ranking economies, some of the most dramatic rise have been Russia’s ascent from 15th in 2000 to sixth in 2009, South Africa’s rise from 12th to ninth, Brazil’s climb from 10th to eighth and India’s rise from eighth to fifth position.
Japan was replaced by China in the second spot in 2003. The United Kingdom went down from sixth place in 2000 to 11th in 2009. Canada fell from ninth in 2000 to 15th in 2006 and continued there in 2009.