The Asian economies are home to 3.5 billion consumers, but their share in global consumption remains small much smaller than their share in global GDP. China alone accounts for 20 of the world s population, nearly 11 of global GDP, but only 3 of global consumption.

After all, global growth, at its current level, is inadequate for mere redistribution among countries to work. Overall global GDP needs to increase.

From 2000 to 2014, global GDP more than doubled, from 31.8 trillion to over 75 trillion. Over the same period, China s nominal GDP soared from 1.2 trillion to more than 10 trillion growing at more than four times the global rate.

Global trade as a share of GDP may therefore decline, but without adverse consequences for global economic growth. Rising productivity does not require relentlessly increasing trade intensity.

Even the reduced global forecast of 3.4 GDP growth for this year is likely to prove excessively optimistic. Before the crisis, world trade grew at 6 8 annually well faster than GDP.

Of course, America did maintain economic dominance after 1945 the devastation of WWII in so many countries meant that the US produced nearly half of global GDP. That position lasted until 1970, when the US share of global GDP fell to its pre war level of one quarter.

Every month, some 290 million children endure such suffering. The welfare cost is 3.6 trillion, or 4.2 of global GDP.

The continent had been not enjoyed the benefits brought about by globalization, as manifested in its shares the lowest of all in global FDI, trade, financial flows and global GDP.

Europe s extensive regional and global trade networks mean that its internal problems are impeding world trade and, in turn, global economic growth. In 2012, world trade expanded by only 2.5 , while global GDP grew at a disappointing 3.2 rate.

In response to the global financial crisis in 2008, China introduced a RMB4 trillion ( 634 billion) stimulus package. While the increase in investment reduced the saving GDP ratio, the resulting increase in imports lowered the trade surplus GDP ratio.

Today, they have nearly caught up, with a combined GDP of more than 16 trillion, just short of America s 17.4 trillion. Indeed, since 2000, the BRICs have been responsible for nearly a third of the rise in nominal global GDP.

But the world order has changed. Emerging markets and developing countries now account for 50 of global GDP and 75 of global growth, and demographics will further accentuate the shift in the center of economic gravity.

Third, though China s public debt GDP ratio is officially still under 20 , since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, its fiscal position has deteriorated. If the government s contingent liabilities are included, China s debt GDP ratio may be closer to 50 .

Some countries have bucked the global trend. Indonesia, for example, has experienced accelerating growth, with rising business and consumer confidence boosting investment to almost 33 of GDP.

Frustration cannot grow faster than opportunity in any country. For example, the negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) reflect President Obama s determination to strike an accord with countries that represent one third of global trade and 40 of global GDP.

Despite nerve wracking ups and downs, the last 50 years delivered an unprecedented global growth dividend. Measured according to GDP (admittedly a flawed metric), the world economy expanded sixfold.

ALESSANDRIA, ITALY Tax evasion is a global scourge. The black economy has, by some estimates, reached 10 of GDP in advanced countries and can top 70 in developing countries.

The McKinsey Global Institute recently estimated that world financial assets today are more than three times world GDP triple the ratio in 1980 (and up from only two thirds of world GDP after World War II). And then there are the numbers that sound very large and are hard to interpret 300 trillion in derivative securities 3 trillion managed by 12,000 global hedge funds 1.2 trillion a year in private equity.

GDP link was also introduced to allow extra payments in case actual real GDP exceeded the base case GDP as projected by the Argentine Government.

But Germany s 6 of GDP surplus is mainly a problem for Europe, while Turkey s 7.4 deficit is mainly a problem for Turkey. In other words, theirs are not global problems.

As for economic collapse, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that global GDP per capita will increase 14 fold over this century and 24 fold in the developing world.

Among the group of developed countries, the United States of America was once more the main engine for global growth, with real GDP increasing by more than 4 per cent.

The president of the European Commission promised that while the European Union s climate policies are not cost free, they would amount to just 0.5 of GDP. Indeed, politicians of all stripes have reiterated the Stern Review s finding that global warming can be curtailed by policies costing just 1 of world GDP.

( OF NOMINAL GDP)

Responsibility for overseeing the global economy is passing rapidly from the G 7 8 to the G 20, as it should. The latter accounts for 90 of global GDP and two thirds of the world s population, so this shift is highly desirable indeed, essential.

Moreover, the global financial crisis has created new puzzles. GDP in nearly all advanced economies is currently far below pre crisis projections, yet few expect the gap ever to be bridged.

In its most recent WEO, the IMF forecasts global GDP to grow by only 3.3 in 2012, and by 3.6 in 2013. Moreover, the downgrading of growth prospects is remarkably widespread.

This was always bad history. The record shows that the period 1950 1973, when government intervention in market economies was at its peacetime height, was uniquely successful economically, with no global recessions and faster rates of GDP growth and growth of GDP per capita than in any comparable period before or since.

The notion of a divide between the rich north and the poor and developing south has long been a central concept among economists and policymakers. From 1950 to 1980, the north accounted for almost 80 of global GDP but only 22 of its population, and the south accounted for the remainder of global population and 20 global income.

With 7 of the global population, 25 of global GDP, and 50 of global welfare expenditure, the EU has created a model that inspires millions of people to dream of emigrating to Europe. However, the EU s historic emphasis on achieving its social goals, to the exclusion of industry s long term needs, is undermining the entire European project.

The International Monetary Fund announced in June a new Global Housing Watch website that tracks global home prices and ratios. The site shows a global index for house prices that is rising, on a GDP weighted basis, as fast as during the boom that preceded the 2008 crisis, though not yet reaching the 2006 record level.

GDP Gross domestic product

GDP gross domestic product

Devaluation and debt restructuring worked. In subsequent years, until the global financial crisis erupted in 2008, Argentina s annual GDP growth was 8 or higher, one of the fastest rates in the world.

Commentators have been warning since the 1980 s that the US may lose its global hegemony for economic reasons budget deficits, a declining share of global GDP, and the switch from net international creditor to net debtor with the historical hypothesis of imperial overreach gaining renewed attention.

Some advocates of open borders estimate that unrestricted movement across borders could double global GDP. While a borderless world is a political non starter, that figure does point to the scale of the development gains that a truly well managed system of global mobility might produce.

Twenty percent of global GDP already is produced in water scarce areas. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in the absence of more sustainable water management, the share could rise to 45 by 2050, placing a significant portion of global economic output at risk.

No economy is an island indeed, the global economy is more integrated than ever before. Consider this Fifty years ago, emerging markets and developing economies accounted for about a quarter of world GDP.

But, although developing countries now account for more than half of global GDP growth, advanced countries have yet to admit them to leadership roles that reflect their growing influence in the world economy.

The Republic of Korea, for instance, expects pervasive broadband to increase industrial efficiency, create e business and jobs, improve global competitiveness, and add the equivalent of several thousand dollars to per capita GDP.

CAMBRIDGE One of the biggest economic surprises of 2015 is that the stunning drop in global oil prices did not deliver a bigger boost to global growth. Despite the collapse in prices, from over 115 per barrel in June 2014 to 45 at the end of November 2015, most macroeconomic models suggest that the impact on global growth has been less than expected perhaps 0.5 of global GDP.

That's not U.S. GDP per capita, which will be over a million, but world GDP per capita 200,000.

Sixty five years ago, the distribution of global GDP was such that Europe had only one role model for its single market the United States. Today, however, Europe is faced with a new global economy, reconfigured by globalization and by the emerging economies of Asia and Latin America.

GDP has been our hammer.

And on this axis, GDP.