Atlas method

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The Atlas method is a method used by the World Bank since 1993 to estimate the size of economies in terms of gross national income (GNI) in U.S. dollars.

A country's GNI in local (national) currency is converted into U.S. dollars using the Atlas conversion factor, which uses a three-year average of exchange rates to smooth effects of transitory exchange rate fluctuations, adjusted for the difference between the rate of inflation in the country (using the country's GDP deflator), and that in a number of developed countries (using a weighted average of the countries' GDP deflators in SDR terms). The resulting GNI in U.S. dollars is divided by the country's midyear population to obtain the GNI per capita. [1]

The World Bank favors the Atlas method for comparing the relative size of economies, and uses it to classify countries in low, middle and high-income categories and to set lending eligibilities, in order to reduce short-term fluctuations in country classification.

Comparison of GNI (Atlas method) and GNI
2016 World Bank (millions of current US$)
No.CountryGNI (Atlas method) [2] GNI [3] Difference
1Flag of the United States.svg  United States 18,357,32218,968,714-611,392
2Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 11,374,22711,154,194220,033
3Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 4,816,8925,096,371-279,479
4Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 3,624,6383,536,57988,058
5Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom 2,778,4882,587,657190,831
6Flag of France.svg  France 2,590,0302,504,68485,346
7Flag of India.svg  India 2,212,3062,235,524-23,218
8Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 1,923,0951,863,08560,011
9Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 1,835,9931,758,52777,466
10Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1,584,1771,508,49575,682

See also

Related Research Articles

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Historical GDP of China

This article includes a list of China's historical gross domestic product (GDP) values, the market value of all final goods and services produced by a nation in a given year. The GDP dollar estimates presented here are either calculated at market or government official exchange rates (nominal), or derived from purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations. This article also includes historical GDP growth.

References

  1. The Atlas Method Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine , World Bank.
  2. "GNI, Atlas method (current US$)". World Bank.
  3. "GNI (current US$)". World Bank.