roblem of channeling resources away from welfare programs in order to
increase investment and strengthen incentives to seek employment. The
addition of more than 80 million people each year to an already
overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution,
desertification, underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of
their own internal problems, the industrialized countries have
inadequate resources to deal effectively with the poorer areas of the
world, which, at least from the economic point of view, are becoming
further marginalized. Toward the end of 1997 and on into 1998, serious
financial difficulties in several high-growth East Asia countries cast
a shadow over short-term global economic prospects. The introduction
of the euro as the common currency of much of Western Europe in
January 1999 will pose serious economic risks because of varying
levels of income and cultural and political differences among the
participating nations. (For specific economic developments in each
country of the world in 1997, see the individual country entries.)

GDP: GWP (gross world product)-purchasing power parity-$38 trillion
(1997 est.)

GDP-real growth rate: 4% (1997 est.)

GDP-per capita: purchasing power parity-$6,500 (1997 est.)

GDP-composition by sector:
agriculture: NA%
industry: NA%
services: NA%

Inflation rate-consumer price index: all countries 25%; developed
countries 2% to 4% typically; developing countries 10% to 60%
typically (1997 est.)
note: national inflation rates vary widely in individual cases, from
stable prices in Japan to hyperinflation in a number of Third World
countries

Labor force:
total: 2.24 billion (1992)
by occupation: NA

Unemployment rate: 30% combined unemployment and underemployment in
many non-industrialized countries; developed countries typically
5%-12% unemployment (1997 est.)

Industries: dominated by the onrush of technology, especially in
computers, robotics, telecommunications, and medicines and medical
equipment; most of these advances take place in OECD nations; only a
small portion of non-OECD countries have succeeded in rapidly
adjusting to these technological forces; the accelerated development
of new industrial (and agricultural) technology is complicating
already grim environmental problems

Industrial production growth rate: 5% (1997 est.)

Electricity-capacity: 4 billion kW (1994)

Electricity-production: 12.34268 trillion kWh (1994)

Electricit