- Emerging economies are worth a total of $44.4trillion adjusted for purchasing power, compared to $42.8trillion for the rich world
- But developed countries are still far richer per capita
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The world's developing economies are now larger than those of developed countries for the first time ever, it has emerged.
As
poorer countries' economies continue to grow, they have between them
overtaken richer economies which are held back by sluggish growth.
The total size of emerging economies this year is projected to be $44.4trillion, compared to $42.8trillion for the rich world.
The figures, compiled by the International Monetary Fund and published by Quartz,
are calculated on the basis of purchasing-power parity (PPP), which
takes account of the fact that goods and services are cheaper in poorer
countries.
'Advanced
economies' are defined as the U.S., western Europe, Japan, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand plus the four 'Asian Tigers' - South Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
These nations account for less
that 20 per cent of global population, with the vast majority of people
living in one of the other 150 countries.
Nonetheless,
ever since the dawn of the modern era this small group of countries has
consistently held more economic firepower than the majority.
However,
this is set to change this year, the IMF data suggest, as the rich
world continues to suffer thanks to the global economic crisis.
Contrast: Developed countries are still far richer when you compared GDP on a per capita basis
Developed economies experienced a sharp recession following the financial crash in 2008, and have grown slowly ever since.
Developed economies experienced a sharp recession following the financial crash in 2008, and have grown slowly ever since.
Poorer countries, by contrast, saw a much less serious slowdown, followed by a resumption of runaway growth rates.
The
effect of the crisis is shown even more vividly if you strip out the
U.S. and China, the largest rich and poor countries respectively, from
the figures.
Excluding
the world's two giants, emerging economies became larger than developed
ones in 2009, the year that recession struck the rich world.
Growth: The rich world has been held back by the recession which followed the global financial crisis
The gap is only set to
widen over the next few years, as developing countries are forecast to
keep up strong growth rates despite China's recent economic stumbles.
However, advanced economies remain far richer than emerging ones when it comes to GDP per person.
Adjusted for PPP, developed countries have a GDP of $41,369 per capita, compared to just $7,415 for emerging economies.
And
if you look at unadjusted GDP, the rich world still has more economic
heft than poor countries, at a total $45trillion against $29.1trillion.
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