Full List of 60 Countries That Did Better than Canada
The Conservatives are stressing their supposed credentials as “economic managers” in their strategy to win a majority — combined with fear-mongering about a future coalition (although that latter part of the strategy may be backfiring on them).
I’ve argued before that claims about Canada’s superior performance are not factually correct, especially when we correct for faster population growth here (which makes any international comparison of absolute GDP growth or job-creation meaningless).
My Globe and Mail column today carries on the argument, by depicting Canada’s relative performance (on both GDP and unemployment criteria) within a broader international sample. It reports Canada’s ranking as follows:
2009 Real GDP growth: 61st out of 107 countries reporting this data to the IMF International Financial Statistics.
2010 Real GDP growth (first 3 quarters): 25th out of 53 countries reporting quarterly data to the IMF.
2009 increase in the unemployment rate (compared to 2008): 56th out of 72 countries reporting annual unemployment rate data in the ILO’s Short-Term Indicators of the Labour Market.
2010 improvement in the unemployment rate (first three quarters, compared to 2009): 28th out of 74 countries reporting quarterly data to the ILO.
As I say in the column, these kind of rankings are more reminiscent of Canada’s international soccer ranking (84th in the latest FIFA table), rather than the gold-medal victories in hockey that the Conservatives are no doubt trying to channel with their national chest-thumping.
Here for posterity is the full listing of countries which outperformed Canada according to the 4 rankings noted above. These are not just “emerging economies,” either; they include many OECD economies which are clearly outperforming Canada.
60 Countries With Faster Real GDP Growth than Canada in 2009 (Canada ranked 61st out of 107 reporting)Â * OECD Member Country
- Argentina
- Australia *
- Bangladesh
- Belarus
- Belize
- Brazil
- Brunei Darussalam
- Burundi
- Chad
- Chile *
- China,P.R.: Mainland
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cyprus
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Egypt
- Greece *
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- India
- Indonesia
- Israel *
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Korea, Republic of *
- Kyrgyz Republic
- Libya
- Macao
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Mauritius
- Montserrat
- Morocco
- New Zealand *
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Norway *
- Pakistan
- Panama
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland *
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Singapore
- South Africa
- Sri Lanka
- Switzerland *
- Syrian Arab Republic
- Thailand
- Uganda
- Uruguay
- Vietnam
- Yemen, Republic of
- Zambia
Source: IMF International Financial Statistics Database, March 2011 edition.
24 Countries with Real GDP Growth Faster than Canada During the First Three Quarters Of 2010 (Canada ranked 25th out of 53 reporting)Â * OECD Member Country
- Argentina
- Belarus
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Germany *
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Israel *
- Japan *
- Korea, Republic of *
- Luxembourg *
- Malaysia
- Malta
- Mauritius
- Mexico *
- P.R. China, Mainland
- Peru
- Poland *
- Singapore
- Slovak Rep. *
- Sweden *
- Thailand
- Turkey *
Source: IMF International Financial Statistics Database, March 2011 edition.
55 Countries Which Experienced a Smaller Increase in the Unemployment Rate than Canada in 2009 (Canada ranked 56th out of 72 reporting)Â * OECD Member Country
- Albania
- Argentina
- Australia*
- Austria*
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belgium*
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Chile*
- Colombia
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- Finland*
- France*
- Germany*
- Greece*
- Hong Kong*
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Israel*
- Italy*
- Jamaica
- Japan*
- Kazakhstan
- Korea*
- Luxembourg*
- Macau
- Macedonia
- Malaysia
- Malta
- Mauritius
- Mexico*
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Netherlands*
- New Zealand*
- Norway*
- Peru
- Phillipines
- Poland*
- Portugal*
- Romania
- Singapore*
- Slovenia*
- South Africa
- Sri Lanka
- Sweden*
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Trinidad & Tobago
- U.K.*
- Venezuela
Source: International Labour Organization, Short-Term Indicators of the Labour Market, March 2011.
27 Countries Which Experienced a Larger Improvement in the Unemployment Rate than Canada During the First Three Quarters of 2010 (Canada ranked 28th out of 74 reporting)Â * OECD Member Country
- Argentina
- Australia*
- Austria*
- Brazil
- Chile*
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- Germany*
- Hong Kong
- Indonesia
- Israel*
- Kazakhstan
- Luxembourg*
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Malta
- Mexico*
- Peru
- Phillipines
- Russian Fed.
- Singapore
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Turkey*
- Ukraine
- West Bank & Gaza
Source: International Labour Organization, Short-Term Indicators of the Labour Market, March 2011.
Its hard to know where to start, but the conclusions of Jim Standford, well hold very little logic. Economics seems one of those professions where propaganda outweighs facts, and I always find it hilarious when people accuse others of it, when they do it themselves.
OK , lets take 1 example
55 Countries Which Experienced a Smaller Increase in the Unemployment Rate than Canada in 2009 (Canada ranked 56th
Lets say a Country with very high unemployment in the first place, Its quite obvious that their rate of increase could be smaller than Canada’s however, indicators such as that does not mean they are in fact doing better. If Canada has an unemployment rate of 10% and another country 25% and they increase more slowly , hardly an indicator we are doing worse than them. I oo can use
I could go on and on, but if people wish to believe the world is flat so be it, sad the Globe and Mail prints propaganda though.
Steve? I cannot understand why people bury their heads in the sand. What’s the view like down there? HOW in heavens name are you going to make things better if you don’t accept some things need fixing. The guy who wrote this article NAMES the countries – just doesn’t say SOME countries, that would make it kinda easy for you to check out your theory now. wouldn’t it? BUT NO you don’t – instead you choose to waffle and keep the sand on the bottom in view!