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

Sources UNCTAD, Handbook of Statistics, 2004 (exports and imports of merchandise) and World Bank, World Development Indicators 2005 (GDP).

Sources World Bank, World Bank Development Indicators 2005 (GDP per capita) and UNCTAD, UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics, 2004 (inward FDI).

Climate change has been portrayed as a huge catastrophe costing as much as 20 of world GDP, though brave politicians could counter it at a cost of just 1 of GDP. The reality is just the opposite We now know that the damage cost will be perhaps 2 of world GDP, whereas climate policies can end up costing more than 11 of GDP.

Even at that rate, by 2100 average GDP per capita in the world will be 200,000.

In 2010, China's GDP stood second in the world. However, China' achievements are more than economy.

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.

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.

Sources OECD, statistical annex to 2004 Development Cooperation Report (net ODA receipts, ODA GNI) UNCTAD, Handbook of Statistics, 2004 (exports of merchandise) World Bank, World Development Indicators 2005 (external debt, GDP).

The first issue concerns the continuation of enlargement. The EU is an indisputable success, constituting the largest integrated economic area in the world and accounting for more than 30 of world GDP and around 17 of world trade.

The interest rate on Japan s ten year government bonds is now less than 1 the lowest in the world, despite a very high level of government debt and annual budget deficits. Indeed, Japan s debt is now roughly 230 of GDP, higher than that of Greece (175 of GDP) and nearly twice that of Italy (125 of GDP).

In economic terms, the world is entering an era of diminished expectations. If, as predicted, average annual GDP growth amounts to 3 in the foreseeable future, it will take 25 years for the world economy to double in size ten years longer than it took before the global economic crisis, when average GDP growth stood at 5 .

Over the past decade, China has accounted for an average of 1.6 percentage points of world GDP growth per year more than double the combined 0.7 percentage point contribution of the so called advanced economies. Even if its GDP growth slows to 6.8 this year, China would account for slightly more growth than is likely from the advanced world.

At the end of 2007, developing countries, excluding China, held reserves equivalent to 20.6 of their GDP, compared to just 3.7 in 1990. This generated a huge asymmetry in the world economy, as industrial countries, excluding Japan, hold only 2.6 of GDP in reserves.

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.

( OF NOMINAL GDP)

Sarkozy suggested that world leaders should stop myopically focusing on GDP and consider a new index, what some French are calling a joie de vivre index.

But the 8 real GDP growth recorded in 2004 might encourage some to expect a surge in economic performance, as has occurred elsewhere in the world.

GDP Gross domestic product

GDP gross domestic product

But that will not be true this year, because consumer prices are falling, whereas the GDP deflator (and nominal GDP) is still increasing. This should lead to solid government revenues, which is good news for highly indebted governments throughout the industrialized world, but particularly for the eurozone periphery.

If the oil price stays at 40 a barrel, expect it to have next to no effect on short term world GDP growth. But if the oil price remains at or near 60 a barrel, expect everyone's forecasts of GDP growth to be reduced by 1 per year.

While the US contributes 28 to world GDP, China accounts for only 5 . The whole of Asia, from Turkey to China, contributes 24 , less than the US alone.

Similarly, it remains unclear that the Chinese development path will remain smooth. Fixed investment in China is close to 50 of GDP which must be a world record.

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.

GDP has been our hammer.

And on this axis, GDP.

Growth in per capita GDP

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.

According to the World Bank, developing countries spend an average of 3 4 of GDP on infrastructure every year, compared to an estimated 7 of GDP required to meet existing infrastructure needs for maintaining rapid growth. This translates into an annual gap of at least 300 billion at current prices.

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.

Since NAFTA, Mexican real GDP has grown at 3.6 per year, and exports have boomed, going from 10 of GDP in 1990 and 17 of GDP in 1999 to 28 of GDP today. Next year, Mexico s real exports will be five times what they were in 1990.

Owing to strong GDP growth, the debt to GDP ratio decreased from 100.2 per cent to 95.1 per cent.

By 2008, Country A has surpassed Country B with 700 per capita GDP as compared with 650 per capita GDP.

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.

But, while the US spends more money per capita on medical care than almost any other country (and more as a percentage of GDP), it is far from topping the world in life expectancy. France, for example, spends less than 12 of its GDP on medical care, compared to 17 in the US.

Last in Europe GDP per capita.

The Problem with Poor Countries GDP

The Black Hole in America s GDP

In a recent paper, Mark Kamstra and I proposed that governments issue shares in their GDP, with each share amounting to a trillionth of GDP. These trills would help individual countries manage their GDP risks.

Country A, in 1990, had about 300 per capita GDP as compared with Country B, which had 460 in per capita GDP.

Just to show you what we plotted, here is income, GDP GDP of the city crime and patents all on one graph.

Cheap meaning a few percent of GDP.

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.

France s debt GDP ratio is already around 90 even if its 2013 budget deficit does not exceed 3.5 of GDP, its debt GDP ratio will have climbed to 93 by the end of the year. The government s GDP share, at 56 , is the highest in the eurozone and second highest among all developed countries.