An interesting NYT piece –
“Did global output
rise or fall last year?
It all depends on
what currency you use to keep track. Measured in dollars, global growth
recorded the first drop since the end of the financial crisis late in the last
decade, declining by nearly 5 percent, from $77.3 trillion to $73.5 trillion.
That’s largely because of the dollar’s rise, which makes the output of
countries with weaker currencies seem smaller when measured in dollars.
But if you count in
euros, growth soared by 13.6 percent.
The International
Monetary Fund’s solution to this problem is to use a formula involving
purchasing power parity (PPP), which adjusts for the relative value of
currencies and their purchasing power. The I.M.F. has said world output grew
3.1 percent last year.”