Researching our way to a brighter Arab future

GDP stands for ‘gross domestic product’. It is a sum – typically in US dollars – of a country’s consumption, investment, government expenditure and net income from exports minus imports.

The final sum is essentially a monetary valuation of a country’s total internal economy: a final assessment of the total amount of money in circulation in a country.

Whilst advance GDP calculations may factor in figures for black market and other unaccounted transactions, annual GDP numbers do not consider historic debts owed between countries. This is particularly problematic when trying to assess the true monetary prowess of historic African colonies whose financial liabilities are not incorporated in Eurocentric GDP calculations.