The Goods Revisited
2006-02-22
I've been saying some stupid things lately. Case in point: the recent post in which I said that Islamic counties don't produce anything but oil. Not true. Some research on the world's majority Muslim countries yields the following estimated GDP and non-oil exports for each country:
- Afghanistan -- $20 billion | $98 million
- Algeria -- $212 billion | $1,500 million
- Azerbaijan -- $30 billion | $160 million
- Bahrain -- $14 billion | $132 million
- Bangladesh -- $275 billion | $6,600 million
- Burkina Faso -- $16 billion | $418 million
- Brunei -- $6.8 billion | $100 million (?)
- Chad -- $16 billion | $365 million
- Comoros -- $0.4 billion | $9 million
- Cote d'Ivoire -- $25 billion | $3,000 million (?)
- Djibouti -- $0.6 billion | $260 million
- Ethiopia -- $55 billion | $560 million
- Eritrea -- $4 billion | $64 million
- Egypt -- $295 billion | $6,000 million
- Gambia -- $1.4 billion | $132 million
- Guinea -- $19 billion | $710 million
- Indonesia -- $900 billion | $64,000 million
- Iran -- $551 billion | $11,000 million
- Iraq -- $94 billion | $500 million
- Jordan -- $24 billion | $2,900 million
- Kuwait -- $48 billion | $2,700 million
- Kazakhstan -- $118 billion | $7,500 million
- Kyrgyzstan -- $8.5 billion | $646 million
- Lebanon -- $19.5 billion | $1,780 million
- Libya -- $35 billion | $700 million
- Maldives -- $1.2 billion | ??
- Malaysia -- $290 billion | $140,000 million
- Mali -- $8.5 billion | $640 million
- Mauritania -- $5.5 billion | $541 million
- Morocco -- $108 billion | $7,100 million
- Niger -- $9.6 billion | $269 million
- Nigeria -- $110 billion | $260 million
- Oman -- $36 billion | $1,100 million (?)
- Pakistan -- $350 billion | $13,700 million
- Qatar -- $17.5 billion | $2,400 million
- Saudi Arabia -- $310 billion | $11,300 million
- Senegal -- ?? | $750 million
- Sierra Leone -- $2.8 billion | $35 million
- Somalia -- $4.3 billion | $79 million
- Sudan -- $76 billion | $2,900 million (?)
- Syria -- ?? | ??
- Tajikistan -- $7.95 billion | $1,130 million
- Turkey -- $382 billion | $74,000 million
- Tunisia -- $68 billion | $8,000 million
- Turkmenistan -- $27.6 billion | $3,000 million (?)
- Uzbekistan -- $48 billion | $3,700 million
- United Arab Emirates -- $57 billion | $4,000 million (?)
- Yemen -- $15 billion | $2,000 million
Thus the total productive output of the Islamic countries is approximately $4.7 trillion with non-oil exports of approximately $390 billion. That's not nothing, but let's keep in mind that there are reportedly 1.4 billion people living in the majority Muslim countries. So the average output per capita in these countries is about $3400 per person and non-oil exports are about $278 per person.
Further, of the non-oil exports (i.e., the result of producing things that people in other countries want to buy), 50% is from Malaysia and Indonesia (which lie far outside the core of the Islamosphere) and another 20% is from Turkey (by tradition another peripheral nation in the Islamic world). Given that the combined population of those three countries is about 335 million, non-oil exports from those countries are about $829 per capita but non-oil exports from the rest of the majority Muslim countries are about $100 a person.
Compare that to some of the following Anglosphere areas:
- The United Kingdom, with a population of 60 million people, has a GDP (PPP basis) of $1.9 trillion and exports of $372 billion, thus output per capita of $31,500 and exports per capita of $6200.
- The United States of America, with a population of 300 million people, has a GDP (PPP basis) of $12.4 trillion and exports of $927 billion, thus output per capita of $42,300 and exports per capita of $3090.
Given that many immigrants from majority Muslim countries are successful entrepreneurs in the Anglosphere, it strongly appears that there are systemic reasons why they are not as productive in their home countries.
Peter Saint-Andre > Journal