The world community and the various groups of its constituent states

Structuring the world economy on socio-economic grounds involves the allocation of various groups of its constituent states in the world community. Signs, criteria for the gradation of states may be different.

For example, in the 90s of the twentieth century. more often than others, the breakdown of countries proposed by the UN Economic and Social Council was used, according to which all countries of the world were divided into three main groups: developed countries with market economies (USA, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Canada, etc.); countries with economies in transition (Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, as well as states that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia); developing countries.

Classification of countries according to the methodology of the World Bank as the main criterion for the breakdown of states considers the level of income.

Table 1.1 Resource requirements by component

Classification of countries according to the methodology of the World Bank

Many scholars classify countries by stages of economic development. W. Rostow (USA) divides countries into traditional, industrial, and mature.

Classification by type of economic system divides the countries of the world into four main groups:

countries with subsistence economies; commodity exporting countries; industrializing countries; industrialized countries; newly industrialized countries.

The first group consists of countries whose economies are dominated by inefficient agricultural production. Ethiopia is a case in point. The second group is dominated by Middle Eastern energy exporting states. A group of industrially developing countries demonstrates the rapid development of the manufacturing industry and the formation of a middle class, as, for example, in India. Industrially developed countries, such as the USA, Japan, Germany, and others, form the “core” of the world economy, in which advanced technologies are created, high-tech and complex technical products are produced, organizational, managerial and socio-economic standards are formed, on the basis of which the world economic order is formed. Newly industrialized countries, such as, say, South Korea, having accelerated industrialization, have achieved the predominance of industry in the national economy, which has supplanted the agrarian sector, and so far occupy an intermediate place between industrially developing and developed countries.

The most common approach to structuring the world economy distinguishes groups of countries, in terms of their level of economic development, based on the set of indicators used: GDP (GNP) or national income per capita; sectoral structure of the national economy; production of basic products per capita; the level and quality of life of the population; indicators of economic efficiency, the most important of which is labor productivity.

Consider how these indicators “look” in different countries.

The most important macroeconomic indicator, as you know, is GDP per capita, which allows you to assess the level of development of productive forces in a national or world economy. The dynamics of this indicator is presented in Table 1.2.

Table 1.2 Resource requirements by component

GDP per capita, in prices and at purchasing power parity in 2000, thousand dollars.

As you can see, “economic power” is unevenly distributed in the world. Over the century, the gap in GDP per capita in the developed countries of the West and developing countries has increased: if in 1900 it was more than six times, then in 2000 it was more than seven times. At the same time, in developed countries over the same period, GDP per capita increased by 6.6 times, and in developing countries – only by 5.4 times.

The highest gdp per capita is estimated to have been achieved in the United States in 2000 at $36,100. A comparison of per capita GDP with that of the United States is presented in Table 1.3.

Table 1.3.

Comparison of per capita GDP with the corresponding indicator of the USA, %

Continuation of Table 1.3

Table 1.3 shows that the gap in per capita GDP during the twentieth century between the United States, on the one hand, and the world, on the other, has increased. If in 1900 in the world the average per capita income was 27.8% of American GDP, then in 2000 – 22.4%. In the developed countries of the West, this gap has narrowed, respectively, from 70.6 to 80.5%; in North Africa, the Near and Middle East – from 13.4 to 19.5%. The reasons for the narrowing of the gap in the first case are the mutual experience of the national economies of developed countries, the convergence of their sectoral structures and cross-direct investment. In the second case, obviously, the gap has narrowed, primarily due to the export-oriented type of expanded reproduction, the growth in demand in the world for strategic resources – energy.

As for the sectoral structure of world GDP, the service sector accounts for 63%, industry – 32%, agriculture – 5%. Approximately this is the structure of the national economies of developed countries. In developing countries, the share of industry in the national economy is low, the agrarian sector prevails. For example, the “least developed countries”, which include about 50 developing countries, tend to have a narrow, even monocultural structure of the economy. The UN uses three criteria to assign countries to this group: a share of GDP per capita not exceeding $350; the proportion of the adult population that can read is not more than 20%; the share of the manufacturing industry in GDP is not more than 10%.

Per capita production of basic commodities in developed and least developed countries varies tens to hundreds of times. For example, in the production of electricity – the gap is five hundred times. Here is an example of how the production of certain types of agricultural products per capita differs from country to country. For example, in Canada, grain production amounted to 1664 kg per capita, in the USA – 1276, Germany – 543, Japan – 95 kg. In the CIS countries, the picture is as follows: Kazakhstan – 920 kg, Ukraine – 488, Russia – 375, Belarus – 363, Tajikistan – 77 kg. Meat production per capita is as follows: Canada – 114 kg, USA – 131, Germany – 75, Japan – 67, Kazakhstan – 40, Ukraine – 34, Russia – 30, Belarus – 65 kg, respectively.

The standard of living of the population of a particular country is largely characterized by the structure of expenditures on the purchase of goods and services that form GDP, as well as such indicators as the “consumer basket”, “subsistence minimum”, the state of labor resources, etc.

For example, in Russia in the late 90s, the share of the population with incomes below the subsistence minimum exceeded 38%, the unemployment rate according to the methodology of the International Labor Organization was 10-11%, the share of wages in GDP was 25.7%. In 1998, wages per unit of output were 4.5 times lower in Russia than in the United States. Accordingly, 4.5 times more products were produced per $ 1 of wages in Russia than in the United States. The source of a significant decrease in specific wages was a steeper drop in the level of wages than a decrease in labor productivity: more than twice in 1990-1998.

According to available estimates, the volume of GDP in the Republic of Belarus amounted to 16912.6 billion rubles in current prices in 2001 and increased by 4.1% compared to 2000 in comparable prices.

The share in GDP of value added was 27.7%, agriculture – 8.9%, construction – 5.3%, transport and communications – 11.3%, trade and catering – 9.7%.

The average monthly wage in 2001 was raised to the level equivalent of $100. UNITED STATES. Reaching the planned average monthly salary for 2005 equivalent to $250. The United States will mean the transition of people’s well-being to a new qualitative level.

The unemployment rate in the Republic of Belarus is one of the lowest in the world. In 2001, the number of unemployed officially registered with the State Employment Service was 2.3 per cent of the economically active population.

According to international statistics, the share of the leading powers in world GDP in the late 90s was as follows: the United States – 21%, Western Europe – 20, Japan – 7.5, China – 12.5, Russia – 2.4%. According to the forecasts of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, by 2015 the United States will have 18% of world GDP, Western Europe – 16%, China – 16.5%, Japan – 5.5%. Russia, with an annual economic growth of 5-6%, will increase its share to 3% of world GDP. Economic integration within the CIS with such a rise will give the CIS a maximum of 4.5 – 4.8% of world GDP.