$102 trillion World GDP (currency-basis), 2022
$480 trillion World individually held wealth, 2022
How much is “all the money in the world”? And where is it?
Guessing at the economic outlook last October, the International Monetary Fund projected global growth of 4.9% for 2022. This would be a jump of about $8 trillion from 2021’s $94 trillion in total world GDP, for the first time bringing this total above $100 trillion. Of this, $60 trillion reflects the output of “advanced economies” — meaning the U.S., Canada, U.K., EU, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore — with the rest of the world combining for the other $42 trillion. By country, about two-thirds of this represents the output of 12 countries:
COUNTRY WEALTH OUTPUT
U.S. $24.8 trillion
China $18.5 trillion
Japan $5.4 trillion
Germany $4.6 trillion
U.K. $3.4 trillion
India $3.3 trillion
France $3.1 trillion
Canada $2.2 trillion
Brazil $1.8 trillion
Russia $1.7 trillion
Australia $1.7 trillion
Mexico $1.6 trillion
All other $30.3 trillion
Regionally, the IMF projects Latin America’s “GDP” at $5 trillion, the Middle East’s $4 trillion, and sub-Saharan Africa’s $2 trillion; its guess for the fastest-growing areas are developing Asia at 5.8%, the Middle East at 4.1%, and Africa at 3.8%. Overall, the long-term trend has been for “developing” regions to catch up toward traditionally wealthy ones, though much of this reflects the growth of China specifically. This is even more true with the alternative “purchasing power parities” method of estimating GDP, which tries to standardize the value of locally purchased goods and services; it yields a world GDP at $153 trillion for 2022, with China the largest economy at $29 trillion.
Another approach, less complete but suggesting a somewhat different pattern, comes from Credit Suisse’s annual “Global Wealth Report.” This tries to calculate the value of individually held assets — houses, bank accounts, cars, property, stock holdings, etc. — and sums them all up to $418 trillion worldwide as of the end of 2020. This total is rising by about 6% or 7% per year, suggesting that in 2022 the “global wealth” of individuals might be $480 trillion. This report doesn’t include a lot of valuable things, though — say, government assets such as buildings, roads and bridges, and national parks, or corporate assets like the value of entertainment industry intellectual property or the commercial airplane fleet, vehicles — and also leaves out the assets of about 2 billion of the world’s poor. Were such things included, this version of the “all the money in the world” figure might easily be close to $1 quadrillion.
By country and region, this wealth estimate tilts more toward “advanced economies” than the IMF’s GDP projections. By Credit Suisse’s count, the largest ones (using their 2020 figures rather than trying to extrapolate the 2022 levels) are:
COUNTRY WEALTH ESTIMATE
U.S. $126.3 trillion
China $74.9 trillion
Japan $26.9 trillion
Germany $18.3 trillion
France $15.0 trillion
U.K. $15.3 trillion
India $12.8 trillion
Canada $9.9 trillion
Australia $9.3 trillion
Korea $9.0 trillion
Where the IMF’s GDP projections find a narrowing gap between traditionally rich countries and the rest of the world, Credit Suisse’s wealth estimates suggest an at least temporarily widening one. It notes a worldwide increase in wealth of about 6.0% in 2020. What with rising home values and stock indexes, the jumps in North America and Europe were 9.1% and 9.8% specifically, meaning that these regions accounted for three-quarters of the world’s wealth growth that year.
The IMF’s World Economic Outlook database, released last October; the next update comes in April.
For a quick study on currency-basis vs. PPP-basis GDP, the IMF has an explanation here.
The Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2021 can be read here.
More on wealth “per capita”: By Credit Suisse’s measurement, the world’s richest people cluster conveniently around C.S.’ Zurich headquarters. Switzerland tops the world at $679,000 in wealth per person. The United States ranks second at $505,000, followed by Hong Kong, Australia, and Denmark. (They toss out small tax havens such as Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, as too difficult to estimate.) On the other hand, Credit Suisse’s figures find the U.S. total warped upward by a relatively few extremely wealthy people. Using the wealth of the “median” adult rather than the “mean,” America places 23rd in the world with $79,000 per person, and Australia leads the world at $238,000 for the median. Putting some names to this, a list maintained by Forbes Magazine of the world’s 100 wealthiest people reports that 9 of the top 10 are Americans, together holding $1.6 trillion.
Treasury Secretary Yellen (April 2021) on the Biden administration’s view of the global macroeconomic outlook and next policy steps.
A book recommendation: Diane Coyle’s “GDP: An Affection History” examines the history of the GDP concept, what it tells you, and some of the things it can’t help with.
Ed Gresser is Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at PPI.
Ed returns to PPI after working for the think tank from 2001-2011. He most recently served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this position, he led USTR’s economic research unit from 2015-2021, and chaired the 21-agency Trade Policy Staff Committee.
Ed began his career on Capitol Hill before serving USTR as Policy Advisor to USTR Charlene Barshefsky from 1998 to 2001. He then led PPI’s Trade and Global Markets Project from 2001 to 2011. After PPI, he co-founded and directed the independent think tank ProgressiveEconomy until rejoining USTR in 2015. In 2013, the Washington International Trade Association presented him with its Lighthouse Award, awarded annually to an individual or group for significant contributions to trade policy.
Ed is the author of Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Global Economy (2007). He has published in a variety of journals and newspapers, and his research has been cited by leading academics and international organizations including the WTO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. He is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia Universities and a certificate from the Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.
