Would you rather be rich in a poor country or poor in a rich country?
Measuring the wealth of one country is not that simple (and it’s not just about GDP) as it largely depends on the definition of a wealthy or a poor country. Global Finance magazine conducted research titled “The richest and poorest countries in the world” which ranked Serbia in 72nd place.
According to the aforementioned ranking, the richest countries in the world are Luxembourg, Singapore, Ireland and Qatar. The poorest are Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Ukraine.
In regard to our region, Croatia ranks 53rd, Montenegro 69th, Bosnia and Herzegovina 88th, and Albania 92nd.
“If we simply consider the gross domestic product of a country, i.e. the sum of all the goods and services produced by the country during one year, then we would have to conclude that the richest nations are precisely those with the highest GDP, such as the United States of America, China, Japan and Germany. But how could the economies of, for example, Singapore or Luxembourg ever measure up to the economies of such powerful structures when they are just, geographically speaking, specks on the world map,” writes Global Finance.
Another problem with using GDP as the main criterion is that it does not measure the distribution of wealth.
“That is why a more accurate presentation of people’s living conditions begins with dividing the national GDP by the number of people who live in a certain country. GDP per capita and its growth rate tell us a lot more about the social wealth that is potentially available to each person and whether this wealth increases or decreases over time,” Global Finance concludes.
(Biznis i Finansije, 07.08.2022)
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