Something at the ASI. Tesco is not the size of Peru’s economy, rather, The Bahamas’.
Timmy Elsewhere
One response
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GDP is clearly a silly comparision, but I’m never sure about this ‘it’s just profits’ idea. That would mean if Tesco were the only company in the UK, then it would be equivalent to an economy about the size of the Netherlands, which seems a bit low given it employs everyone in the country. Furthermore, profits are much more variable than GDP, and so if (say) Tesco had to write down some assets by £4bn then it, on this measure, would have zero GDP, which again seems counter-intuitive given not much else has changed.
Having said that, I’m not entirely sure any such comparision makes sense as countries can make their citizens do things, whereas Tesco can’t make its employees, although I suppose you can argue to what extent those statements are true.
Tim adds: There are indeed arguments about whether the proper comparison is profits plus the wage bill or profits only. A short blog post might not be the place to have it though 🙂
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