The second in our highly prestigious Economic Idiot Awards. I’m afraid that I don’t know whether the award should actually be offered to Mark Townsend of The Observer, or to Action Aid whose report he was commenting on. As an example of pure economic illiteracy, an inability to grasp even the most basic of facts about the world, this does take some beating:
The profits of Wal-Mart,
which owns supermarket chain Asda, are, for example, bigger than the
economies of Mozambique and Ghana combined.
Interesting little fact eh?
WalMart profits for 2004….$8.9 billion.
Size of the economy of Ghana….$41.25 billion at Market Exchange Rates (MER) or $37.9 billion at the more correct Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) rate.
Mozambique? $19.5 billion MER and $15.1 PPP.
Well, yes, a worthy winner I think. This week’s prize is a free subscription to www.nationmaster.com where one can learn all sorts of interesting numbers.
Leave a Reply