Gross Domestic Product

HC Deb 19 April 1990 vol 170 cc1010-1W

Mr. Gareth Wardell

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a list of the top 30 countries in the world in descending order for gross domestic product per head for the latest available date.

Mr. Ryder

Information for the OECD member states is available in the OECD publication "National Accounts, Main Aggregates, volume 1, 1960–1988". Wider coverage is given by the United Nations publication "National Accounts Statistics, Analysis of Main Aggregates, 1986". Both volumes are available in the Library of the House.

For ranking countries in terms of gross domestic product per head, no fully comparable worldwide official statistics are readily available. For many of the centrally planned economies, the official estimates available are prepared in accordance with United Nations system of material product balances (MPS), which differs from the United Nations system of national accounts (SNA) used to describe market economies.