Experts predict that in 2007 EU may overtake the US!
KSa
You can call us "East European tigers"
André in Zuid-Afrika
And they did that after getting rid of communism... which proves the failure of communism.
Patrix
Good job!
Could you supply more information--for instance, the structure, the major industries--about the economies of East Europe?
Which countries are the largest economies in East Europe? What do you think contributes most to the growth of them?
By the way, shall we start an "Economy" subforum? We already have a "Politics" subforum, but technically we can live without politics, we can't live without economy, can we?
GDP growth in those countries is partially fuelled by massive EU subsidies and investment. And also by fiscal dicrepancy within the EU — which is tantamount to extra EU subsidising.
The population of Germany, Spain, France & Italy adds up to 78 % of the total for the 11 countries mentioned. Poland alone accounts for 54 % of the remaining 22 points. And if you add Hungary & the Czech Republic to Poland, then the three represent 83 % of the 22 points remaining. So there is indeed a demographic gap between the West and the East and another one within the Eastern countries you mentioned.
Basically 1 % GDP growth in Germany is 22 billion euros — that's 22 times a 10 % increase in Estonian GDP. In other words, more capital, technology, labour & productivity gains are required in absolute quantity to expand Western Europe's output, even in very moderate relative proportions, than are needed to explode Eastern Europe's GDP as is currently the case.
KSa wrote:
Experts predict that in 2007 EU may overtake the US!
The 78-22 East-West gap widens when you switch from demography to GDP : it's a 93 % lion's share for the Western four versus a tiny 7 % for the seven of the East. Even within the East, Polish GDP accounts for 46 % of the total. That percentage jumps to 83 if you consider Poland and Hungary and the Cezch Republic. As things now stand, any perceptible upturn in EU GDP growth is therefore likely to originate from the West, not from the East, whatever their own growth pace may be — even skyrocketing.
Inflation rate, too, gives some clues about what GDP growth really means in some Eastern countries like Estonia & Latvia : in those countries the economy is clearly overheating and a hard landing is to be expected sooner or later.
There's a very interesting website called The CIA World Factbook which is basically a website that has a list of all the countries in the world and statistics concerning the country's government, economy, demographics, etc.
Just google "CIA WORLD FACTBOOK" and it should lead you to the website. I find myself on that website when I'm incredibly bored and have nothing else to do.
Deborah
bruce wrote:
Just google "CIA WORLD FACTBOOK" and it should lead you to the website. I find myself on that website when I'm incredibly bored and have nothing else to do.
Funny, I came across that website once when I was googling something, and got sidetracked for quite a while.
Porthos
Quote:
Just google "CIA WORLD FACTBOOK" and it should lead you to the website. I find myself on that website when I'm incredibly bored and have nothing else to do.
Haha! Me too! I thought I was the only one, lol.
Patrix
I even found a published paper edition of CIA world factbook when I went on a spending spree at a bookstore in Beijing a couple of years ago. Must have been imported from the US.
Loic
Hey, Patrix! How're you? You've been such a stranger!
Patrix
And I've been losing money in the deranged Chinese stock market, which explains why I've been such a stranger. Loic, you look smarter than the last time I saw your avatar. And how's everybody going?
Loic
Ouch. I hope you didn't get your fingers burnt. What I do know is that stockmarkets throughout the region have made a modest recovery today. I hope you have recovered some of your losses.
I always think that the market from the second quarter of this year has been that of a bear disguised as a bull. Well, the bear is about to reveal his true colours, isn't he?
PS: Do you still keep in touch with Wulefu? If you make a permanent comeback, and so does he, we can revive the Chinese language forum.
