{"id":296594,"date":"2019-02-02T11:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-02-02T09:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=296594"},"modified":"2019-02-01T14:43:46","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T12:43:46","slug":"californias-gdp-is-bigger-than-all-the-countries-is-africa-combined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/296594\/californias-gdp-is-bigger-than-all-the-countries-is-africa-combined\/","title":{"rendered":"California&#8217;s GDP is bigger than all the countries is Africa combined"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The US state of California has a larger gross domestic product than that of all African countries put together, a popular Twitter account claimed in January 2019.<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/spectatorindex\/status\/1086156233864671232\">a tweet<\/a>\u00a0to its nearly 900,000 followers\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/spectatorindex\">The Spectator Index<\/a>\u00a0said the state\u2019s GDP was US$2.9 trillion, and Africa\u2019s $2.33 trillion. More than this, California had a bigger economy than the UK, France, India, Brazil and Russia, the tweet said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">GDP<\/p>\n<p>UK: $2.81 trillion<br \/>\nFrance: $2.79 trillion<br \/>\nIndia: $2.69 trillion<br \/>\nAfrica: $2.33 trillion<br \/>\nBrazil: $1.91 trillion<br \/>\nRussia: $1.65 trillion<\/p>\n<p>California: $2.9 trillion<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/spectatorindex\/status\/1086156233864671232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 18, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Africa Check has asked Spectator Index for the source of its data. We\u2019ve\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/africacheck.org\/?s=the+spectator+index\">previously fact checked\u00a0<\/a>a number of claims from this account but have not received a response to requests for the source of its information.<\/p>\n<p>Could one US state have a larger GDP than that of\u00a0Africa, a continent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/africacheck.org\/reports\/how-many-countries-in-africa-how-hard-can-the-question-be\/\">of 55 recognised states<\/a>? It could, although the actual figures differ slightly.<\/p>\n<p>GDP measures the size of a country\u2019s economy. It is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/pubs\/ft\/fandd\/basics\/gdp.htm\">the market value<\/a>\u00a0of all goods and services produced in a country in a given period, usually a year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What does the data show?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2017, the combined GDP of 54 African countries was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.afdb.org\/fileadmin\/uploads\/afdb\/Documents\/Publications\/African_Statistical_Yearbook_2018.pdf#page=71\">$2.24 trillion<\/a>, according to the most recent data from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.afdb.org\/en\/\">African Development Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>California\u2019s GDP was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apps.bea.gov\/itable\/iTable.cfm?ReqID=70&amp;step=1#reqid=70&amp;step=1&amp;isuri=1\">$2.798 trillion<\/a>\u00a0in 2017, according to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bea.gov\/\">US Bureau of Economic Analysis<\/a>. These figures are at current market rates, which means they have not been adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/africacheck.org\/reports\/africas-entire-gdp-equal-france-obama-mostly-correct\/\">have previously told<\/a>\u00a0Africa Check that while GDP at market rates does not always reflect the cost of living in a country, it is the most appropriate measure to get a sense of the size of an economy.<\/p>\n<p>California\u2019s GDP is so large it makes up 14% of the United States\u2019 total GDP of \u00a0$19.48 trillion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Can you compare different geographical regions?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But is it fair to size up economies this way? Comparing the GDP of different geographical regions was accepted practice, Grieve Chelwa, who lectures economics at the University of Cape Town\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsb.uct.ac.za\/\">Graduate School of Business<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/africacheck.org\/reports\/does-gauteng-make-up-a-third-of-south-africas-gdp-and-is-it-africas-seventh-biggest-economy\/\">previously told<\/a>\u00a0Africa Check.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a useful way to better understand the size of an economy. \u201cFor example, it\u2019s far easier if I say \u2018if California were a country it would be the\u00a0<i>x<\/i>th largest country by economy\u2019 than if I gave you some absolute statement about the actual size of California\u2019s GDP,\u201d said Chelwa.\u00a0<i>&#8211; Cayley Clifford (21\/01\/2019)<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>This article was first published by AfricaCheck. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/africacheck.org\/spot-check\/yes-californias-gdp-is-larger-than-that-of-africas-combined\/\">You can read the original here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/292774\/world-bank-cuts-south-africas-gdp-growth-for-2019\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">World Bank cuts South Africa\u2019s GDP growth for 2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US state of California has a larger gross domestic product than that of all African countries put together, AfricaCheck has found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":142720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-296594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296594"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296598,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296594\/revisions\/296598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}