How big is China’s economy? Big Mac suggests China’s economy bigger than the World Bank thinks

[tower9]

But in the CGTN channels television there is no advertising, no?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CGTN_(TV_channel)

There is commercial television advertising in China in CGTN (former CCTV) or another channels?

Television goes to everywhere, cities and small towns.

Elevators, subways, etc... it's only for big cities.

They have tons of tv channels not just cgtn lol. That’s mainly for foreigners and it’s boring. Most of their other tv channels are not political and very commercialized.

 

[Yankee-stani]

They have tons of tv channels not just cgtn lol. That’s mainly for foreigners and it’s boring. Most of their other tv channels are not political and very commercialized.

CGTN is slightly better than what they had before I remember it was CCTV9 it was horrible back in the late 2000s so many Chinglish mistakes then they started hiring foreigners or folks from the Chinese diaspora

 

[Viet]

How big is China’s economy? Let the Big Mac decide
Our index reckons China’s economy is bigger than the World Bank thinks

Jul 15th 2020

AMERICA'S ECONOMY did not exceed China in size until the 1880s, according to the Maddison Project at the University of Groningen. The two now rival each other again. Because China’s workers are 4.7 times as numerous as America’s, they need be only a fraction as productive to surpass America’s output. No fewer than 53 countries would already have a bigger GDP than America if they were as populous as China.

In 2019 China’s workers produced over 99trn yuan-worth of goods and services. America’s produced $21.4trn-worth. Since 6.9 yuan bought a dollar last year, on average, China’s GDP was worth only $14trn when converted into dollars at market rates. That was still well short of America’s.

But 6.9 yuan stretches further in China than a dollar goes in America. One example is the McDonald’s Big Mac. It costs about 21.70 yuan in China and $5.71 in America, according to prices collected by The Economist. By that measure, 3.8 yuan buys as much as a dollar. But if that is the case, then 99trn yuan can buy as much as $26trn, and China’s economy is already considerably bigger than America’s.

Motivated by this logic, The Economist has compared the price of Big Macs around the world since 1986. The result is a rough gauge of the purchasing power of currencies. It suggests that many currencies are undervalued, relative to the dollar, on the foreign-exchange markets (see chart). A few, such as the Swiss franc, are overvalued. Lebanon’s pound was undervalued until inflation took off late last year, raising local prices even as the pound remained pegged to the dollar. The Big Mac alone jumped 38% in price.

Every few years the World Bank embarks on a vastly more systematic effort to gauge purchasing power by comparing thousands of prices across the world. The results can be startling. Its survey of prices in 2011, released six years ago, showed that China was cheaper than previously thought and its economy was therefore much larger. Based on these estimates, the IMF calculated that its GDP overtook America’s in 2014 and was 27% bigger in 2019.

Many observers, however, greeted these estimates with scepticism. In 2010 an informal survey by a reporter at Caixin, a financial magazine, noted that a number of items were dearer in Hangzhou than in its sister city Boston. (It compared apples to apples, and found that the Golden Delicious variety was 37% pricier in the Chinese city.)

The sceptics won some vindication in May when the World Bank released its latest price-comparison exercise. It discovered that things were about 17% more expensive in China, relative to America, than previously thought. At a stroke, China’s GDP fell by over $3.2trn. The estimates suggest China did not overtake America’s economy until 2016.

But are these new estimates any more robust than earlier efforts? Comparing prices across the world is fraught with difficulties. An item may be a staple in one place and a delicacy in another. The World Bank must also decide how much weight to give each item. That depends on shopping habits, which differ—partly because prices differ. It is easy to go around in circles.

So it might help to check the World Bank’s results against a cruder yardstick—like the price of a Big Mac. Our index suggests that the bank now, if anything, underestimates the buying power of China’s currency, and therefore its economic size. McDonald’s was once a symbol of America’s economic might. Now the Big Mac shows how its might is being surpassed.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/07/15/how-big-is-chinas-economy-let-the-big-mac-decide

Big Mac is not a proper measurement.
Here fast foods are cheap.
Even cheaper if you use coupon from the weekly newspaper.
If following that Big Mac standard then Germany is either very poor or very rich. Or both.

 

[Kamikaze Pilot]

trump be all like: what does a burger know about ecomanomics!

Jis thali mein khata hai, usi mein chhed karta hai? USA mein reh ke USA ki burai karta hai?

- PRTP GWD

 

[GumNaam]

Jis thali mein khata hai, usi mein chhed karta hai? USA mein reh ke USA ki burai karta hai?

- PRTP GWD

such a hindu baniya way of thinking... @ thali! meri rozi roti Allah paida karta hay, koi amreeka shamreeka nahi.

 

[Kamikaze Pilot]

such a hindu baniya way of thinking... @ thali! meri rozi roti Allah paida karta hay, koi amreeka shamreeka nahi.

Allah will provide you wherever you be if it is in your fate. Go to Pakistan. Allah will provide you with same income, movable and immovable property, Western living conditions, and law and order environment.

- PRTP GWD

 

[GumNaam]

Allah will provide you wherever you be if it is in your fate. Go to Pakistan. Allah will provide you with same income, movable and immovable property, Western living conditions, and law and order environment.

- PRTP GWD

you really should do your homework lest you put your own foot in your mouth. had you gone back & read my posts, you would've known that I keep all my investments, both movable & immovable, in Pakistan and yes, ALHUMDULILLAH, Allah has multiplied it manifolds not to mention, made it a means of livelihood for many more. such is the difference between me & the likes of you!

 

[Figaro]

People are too fixated on GDP numbers alone

 

[Kamikaze Pilot]

you really should do your homework lest you put your own foot in your mouth. had you gone back & read my posts, you would've known that I keep all my investments, both movable & immovable, in Pakistan and yes, ALHUMDULILLAH, Allah has multiplied it manifolds not to mention, made it a means of livelihood for many more. such is the difference between me & the likes of you!

You are keeping the wealth in Pakistan but earning it from Americans but still ridicule them like the snake that bites the hand that feeds it.

- PRTP GWD

 

[GumNaam]

You are keeping the wealth in Pakistan but earning it from Americans but still ridicule them like the snake that bites the hand that feeds it.

- PRTP GWD

if punting out the wrongs in the country where you live maybe one a snake then you can consider me as the king freakin cobra! now shoo, run along now!