By Romegas

The World Bank has just updated its data on the size of the world’s economies where it states that since 2021, the Russian economy has become the fourth largest economy in the world, surpassing both Japan and Germany.

The metrics are based on purchasing power parities (PPPs). PPPs adjust for price-level differences across economies, enabling comparison of key metrics such as gross domestic product (GDP) and material well-being. Because price levels tend to be higher in high-income countries and lower in low-income countries, GDP comparisons based on exchange rates—which do not account for price-level differences—overstate the economic size of high-income countries while understating the economic size of low-income countries. PPP-based metrics also have the advantage of avoiding market exchange-rate fluctuations.

According to the base data, the size of the global economy was in 2021 estimated 152 trillion dollars. It’s updated data for 2024 show the top five economies as follows:

China – $35.0 trillion

USA – $27.4 trillion

India – $14.6 trillion

Russia – $6.45 trillion

Japan – $6.3 trillion

Beyond the face value figures, one must further keep in mind a number of other important factors:

1. One will note that 3 of the top five economies belong to BRICS.
2. That those three BRICS economies alone not only account for double the economies of the USA and Japan but also a third of the entire global economy.
3. Those three economies alone account for a third of the world’s population.
4. No European country makes it to the top five of the world’s economies anymore.
5. Russia economy has become the fourth largest in the world despite:
   • Its population being less than half of that of the USA  and a mere tenth of both China’s and India’s
   • Being at war and faced with unprecedented sanctions (over 20,000 of them)
6. BRICS economies continue to grow at an impressive rates while western ones are stagnating and actually regressing.
7. Western economies are burdened with monumental debt – (the USA’s alone stands at 34 trillion – that is more than its entire annual economic output – and growing by one trillion every 6 months ) – while Russia is essentially debt free.
8. Where it comes to actually industrial production – that is producing real things  that people need rather than engaged in financial speculation – Russia, China and India wipe the floor with everyone else.
9. When it comes to STEM graduates per capita – Russia produces 4 times the amount that of the USA despite having half the population – and China an even higher proportion – furthermore if one had to delve deeper and actually compare the curriculums that students have to undertake – the difference is so stark as to make one weep.

These are but just a few observations – we can add much more – such as that Russia alone controls over a quarter of the world’s grain production – in simple words every 1 in 4 of every bread loaf or packet of pasta around the world is produced from Russian grain. It is estimated that Russia’s share will continue to grow and surpass the 30% in the near future. They that control the most staple of food control the world.

A couple of other facts is that there are over another 30 countries who have applied to join BRICS and that these will henceforth trade with each other using their own international currencies or a planned BRICS currency instead of either the dollar or the Euro and everyone with some grey cells between his ears should be capable of reading the writing on the wall.

And yet, Metsola’s Europe assures us we are isolating Russia – it assures us that it is delivering – . Von Der Leyen’s Europe told us that the Russians were cannibalising their dishwashers and washing machines for microchips.

Thanks to Metsola’s Europe, we have now isolated ourselves from trading with the world’s fourth largest economy and provider of all the raw materials and energy that Europe required for it to remain competitive.

Thanks to Metsola’s Europe – We are also making it increasingly difficult for ourselves to partake and thrive in a new multipolar world which is inevitably rising.

Thanks to Metsola’s Europe – we will face years of economic stagnation and demographic death. But we can console ourselves with our progressive values:

I honestly cannot fathom how anyone can vote for the likes of her and the political class that she represents.

I here take the opportunity – to bring to your attention this Q&A with the former foreign minister of Singapore. There is much to learn by listening to others who inhabit the real world beyond our bubble. Listen very carefully – and vote wisely in the upcoming European elections because we need a different Europe than that represented by Metsola if we are to survive, let alone thrive in the coming new world order.