Yesterday I got a small unexpected gift in the mail: The Economist sent me a copy of their Pocket World in Figures 2008, a small book filled with facts, statistics and economic information about 183 countries.
I got the book as a complementary gift after filling in a long online questionnaire. I guess I'm still on their mailing list, although I let my subscription expire last month. They publish a lot of interesting and very detailed articles, but eventually I got tired of their smug tone and their relentless agenda of promoting anglo-saxon supremacy and teaching the world to accept the gift of anglo-saxon leadership.
I guess the tipping point for me was when the Sep 13th issue arrived. The cover sported a picture of an American soldier in Iraq and the following headline: "Iraq: Why They Should Stay". That's when The Economist lost all credibility to me as a source of serious analysis of foreign affairs.
Anyway, the booklet is pretty interesting, if you're the kind of person who likes reading page after page of rankings and figures. Alas, I guess I am such a person.
Ranking Portugal
Possessed of a patriotic fever, I grabbed a pencil and underlined every single figure relating to Portugal. Here's a highlight of what struck me as noteworthy:
33rd biggest economy: 183$bn (US: 12,417$bn)
43rd highest purchasing power: 48.7 (US: 100)
28th highest human development index: 90.4 (US: 94.8)
I guess money's not everything.
- 20th lowest economic growth, 1995-2005
Bummer. We need to start importing Paul Grahams.
- 10th largest deficit: -17$bn
Not good.
- 30th largest deficit as % of GDP
Doesn't look as bad as the absolute value, does it? Actually it's much worse. We're the developed country with the largest percentage deficit. The US doesn't even show up on first 40 positions, which makes the much talked about American deficit seem relatively harmless, considering how many more assets the US has than we do.
- 22nd largest donor in percentage of GDP, 25th largest in absolute numbers
We're nice guys.
- 7th lowest growth in industrial output, 2000-2005
Doubleplus ungood.
- 11th highest net energy importer
On balance, we import 85% of our energetic needs. Better start building those nuclear power plants to take advantage of all that uranium. If it's good for Lovelock, it's good for me!
- 11th highest percentage of population in labour force: 52.4%
We're not lazy, just inefficient.
- 39th most competitive nation overall, 24th most competitive government, 32nd most competitive infrastructure
It seems we can't even blame our government. They're more competitive than the rest of the country, so let's hope they don't try competing with it.
- 19th highest number of patents in force per 100,000 people
I was patently surprised by this.
Not a surprise to anyone who knows Portuguese people and our love affair with our cars.
18th most tourist arrivals
11th highest health spending
17th highest child well-being, but 2nd highest in terms of child relationship with family and friends
We're nice to kids.
- 13th highest number of colour TVs per 100 households
Colour me surprised - not!
- 10th highest number of mobile phones per 100 people: 109.1
One mobile phone is not enough.
- 15th highest percentage of organic cropland
Economy circling the drain, but at least we eat healthy produce.
Last but not least, La pièce de résistance:
- 1st wine drinking nation in the world
We left once notorious France behind at a paltry 4th place. Sapristi, Tonnerre de Brest!
- 16th highest alcohol sales
It seems that we're not the world's greatest drunkards after all. We just like our wine more than most.
If we look at how most of the 183 surveyed nations are doing, we don't fare too bad. Unfortunately, people are usually not very interested in the grand perspective, and care rather more about how they're doing today compared to yesterday. When you do that, the situation isn't so rosy. Our economy has stagnated for the last 10 years, and we'll have to endure some hard changes and economic hardship in order to get back on track.
Fortunately for me, if there is one sector where I feel the Portuguese economy is dynamic and continues to innovate and create employment, it's my industry: IT.
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