Global Competitiveness Report 2007 - Jennifer Blanke Preview

http://www.weforum.org/gcr 28.09.2007
Jennifer Blanke, Senior Economist previews the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008.

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[zabortseva]

In Kazakhstan GCI has very influential reputation. I have got 3 questions and I would be very grateful for the possibility to raise them and to receive answers:1) related to the new methodological amendments; 2)to the possible limits of the annual GDP per capita as the key indicator, estimating stages of economic development; 3) quantitative assessments in terms of context and endowment. I'l be very grateful for the opportunity to raise them. Yelena . N. Zabortseva, MGIMO Master of Art in IR.

[WorldEconomicForum]

Feel free to ask the questions..

[zabortseva]

2)in some international academic spheres, supported by UNDP experts' approaches, there is now new attitude prevailing towards considering GDP as the primary criteria: that it doesn't reflect sustainability of the economic development and that it does not take into account distribution of wealth within the groups of population due to its too general character. Do you intend to make any amendments to this methodological ranking?

[WorldEconomicForum]

The index doesn't measure GDP. It assesses the institutions, factors and policies that determine the level of productivity in an economy. And the level of productivity in turn sets the sustainable level of prosperity that can be attained by an economy. In other words, what we are interested in measuring is the capacity for the economy to generate wealth for the entire society. It is necessary to create the wealth before it can be (re)distributed.

[zabortseva]

Sorry, the first sentence had been deleted.

The key indicator that is determined by WEF experts to estimate the group of countries in term of stage of its development is the annual GDP per capita. This question I raised due to the uneven wealth distribution among population in many transition countries.

[zabortseva]

Sorry, due to the words limit I have not noticed, that deleted the entire first sentence- I meant in terms of assessment groups of economy.

[zabortseva]

Do you plan to introduce quantitative assessments in terms of Context and endowments( for instance, based on the Universityy of Maryland'a indexes)?

[KNOBLOC9H]

in 1971 a mustang was 3000$ a nice house was 18.000$ a full cart of food was 50$ and a good salary was 250$ a week, in 2007 a mustang is 30.000$ a house is 200.000$ a full food cart is 300$ and a good salary is 450$ a week at that rate mass poverty homelessness and slavery was almost inevitable, an economic crash is now necessary and free markets and wallstreet must fall