ion by sector
This entry gives the percentage contribution of agriculture, industry,
and services to total GDP. The distribution will total less than 100
percent if the data are incomplete.

GDP - per capita
This entry shows GDP on a purchasing power parity basis divided by
population as of 1 July for the same year.

GDP - real growth rate
This entry gives GDP growth on an annual basis adjusted for inflation
and expressed as a percent.

GDP methodology
In the Economy category, GDP dollar estimates for all countries are
derived from purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations rather than
from conversions at official currency exchange rates. The PPP method
involves the use of standardized international dollar price weights,
which are applied to the quantities of final goods and services
produced in a given economy. The data derived from the PPP method
provide the best available starting point for comparisons of economic
strength and well-being between countries. The division of a GDP
estimate in domestic currency by the corresponding PPP estimate in
dollars gives the PPP conversion rate. Whereas PPP estimates for OECD
countries are quite reliable, PPP estimates for developing countries
are often rough approximations. Most of the GDP estimates are based on
extrapolation of PPP numbers published by the UN International
Comparison Program (UNICP) and by Professors Robert Summers and Alan
Heston of the University of Pennsylvania and their colleagues. In
contrast, the currency exchange rate method involves a variety of
international and domestic financial forces that often have little
relation to domestic output. In developing countries with weak
currencies the exchange rate estimate of GDP in dollars is typically
one-fourth to one-half the PPP estimate. Furthermore, exchange rates
may suddenly go up or down by 10% or more because of market forces or
official fiat whereas real output has remained unchanged. On 12 January
1994, for example, the 14 countries of the African Financial Community
(whose currencies are tied to the French franc) devalued their
currencies by 50%. This move, of course, did not cut the real output of
these countries by half. One important caution: the proportion of, say,
defense expenditures as a percentage of GDP in local currency accounts
may differ substantially from the proportion when GDP accounts are
expressed in PPP terms, as, for example, when an observer tries to
estimate the dollar level o