PWC, the global auditing company, regularly issued reports under the title, The World in 2050. The latest report, The World in 2020: The long-term view-How will the global economic order change by 2020? was published in February, 2017. The report showed some interesting highlights.

Among the highlights are:

1. Other than the usual countries of China, US and Japan, new countries such as India, Indonesia and Brazil are moving the GDP ladder.
2. Countries such as Pakistan, Vietnam and Bangladesh would move up the GDP ladder.
3. Nigeria would have the largest GDP in the African continent.
4. European countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Britain will move down the GDP ranking in 2050.

The projected rankings of economies based on GDP at PPP (purchasing power parity) in constant 2016 in US$ billion are shown in the table below.

2016 Rankings in constant 2016 in US$ billion

GDP PPP ranking	Country	GDP at PPP
1	China	21,269
2	US	18,562
3	India	8,721
4	Japan	4,932
5	Germany	3,979
6	Russia	3,745
7	Brazil	3,135
8	Indonesia	3,028
9	United Kingdom	2,788
10	France	2,737
11	Mexico	2,307
12	Italy	2,221
13	South Korea	1,929
14	Turkey	1,906
15	Saudi Arabia	1,731
16	Spain	1,690
17	Canada	1,674
18	Iran	1,459
19	Australia	1,189
20	Thailand	1,161
21	Egypt	1,105
22	Nigeria	1,089
23	Poland	1,052
24	Pakistan	988
25	Argentina	879
26	Netherlands	866
27	Malaysia	864
28	Philippines	802
29	South Africa	736
30	Colombia	690
31	Bangladesh	628
32	Vietnam	595

2030 Rankings in constant 2016 in US$ billion

GDP PPP ranking	Country	Projected GDP at PPP
1	China	38,008
2	US	23,475
3	India	19,511
4	Japan	5,606
5	Indonesia	5,424
6	Russia	4,736
7	Germany	4,707
8	Brazil	4,439
9	Mexico	3,661
10	United Kingdom	3,638
11	France	3,377
12	Turkey	2,996
13	Saudi Arabia	2,755
14	South Korea	2,651
15	Italy	2,541
16	Iran	2,354
17	Spain	2,159
18	Canada	2,141
19	Egypt	2,049
20	Pakistan	1,868
21	Nigeria	1,794
22	Thailand	1,732
23	Australia	1,663
24	Philippines	1,615
25	Malaysia	1,506
26	Poland	1,505
27	Argentina	1,342
28	Bangladesh	1,324
29	Vietnam	1,303
30	South Africa	1,148
31	Colombia	1,111
32	Netherlands	1,080

       2050 Rankings in constant 2016 in US$ billion

GDP PPP ranking	Country	Projected GDP at PPP
1	China	58,499
2	India	44,128
3	US	34,102
4	Indonesia	10,502
5	Brazil	7,540
6	Russia	7,131
7	Mexico	6,863
8	Japan	6,779
9	Germany	6,138
10	United Kingdom	5,369
11	Turkey	5,184
12	France	4,705
13	Saudi Arabia	4,694
14	Nigeria	4,348
15	Egypt	4,333
16	Pakistan	4,236
17	Iran	3,900
18	South Korea	3,539
19	Philippines	3,334
20	Vietnam	3,176
21	Italy	3,115
22	Canada	3,100
23	Bangladesh	3,064
24	Malaysia	2,815
25	Thailand	2,782
26	Spain	2,732
27	South Africa	2,570
28	Australia	2,564
29	Argentina	2,385
30	Poland	2,103
31	Colombia	2,074
32	Netherlands	1,496

Changes in Rankings of Asian Countries

Countries	Ranking in 2016	Ranking in 2030	Ranking in 2050
China	1	1	1
India	3	3	2
Indonesia	8	5	4
Japan	4	4	8
Saudi Arabia	15	13	13
Pakistan	24	20	16
Iran	18	16	17
South Korea	13	14	18
Philippines	28	24	19
Vietnam	32	29	20
Bangladesh	31	28	23
Malaysia	27	25	24
Thailand	20	22	25

Note: PPP (purchasing power parity) estimates of GDP adjust the price level difference across countries, providing better measure of the volume of goods and services produced by an economy as compared to GDP at current market exchange rate, which is a measure of value. Essentially GDP PPP controls for different costs of living and price levels, usually relative to US dollar, enabling more accurate estimate of a nation’s level of production.

Observation

In 2050, two Asian countries, China and India, would occupy the top two spots in GDP ranking. In addition, Indonesia would move from 8th spot in 2016 to 4th spot in 2050. Japan, which occupied 4th spot in 2016 would drop to 8th spot in 2050.

Our country, Malaysia, would slightly improve its spot from 27th in 2016 to 24th in 2050. The greatest mover would be Vietnam, moving from 32nd spot in 2016 to 20th spot in 2050.

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