Finance & economics | Free exchange

Why global GDP might be $7trn bigger than everyone thought

The discovery has perturbed Chinese officials

Illustration of a pile of cash hidden under a sofa.
Illustration: Álvaro Bernis

Many people have experienced the joy of finding some spare change down the back of the sofa. On May 30th the World Bank experienced something similar, if on a grander scale. After rooting around in 176 countries, it discovered almost $7trn in extra global GDP—equivalent to an extra France and a Mexico.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “A lot of spare change”

From the June 8th 2024 edition

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