Dutch economy pushed back to sixteenth place on world list

India enters top 10

SINGAPORE - The 2003 top seven economies in the world have kept their pecking order for 2004, a report by the World Bank shows. Among the countries which were assigned a new place on the global ladder are the Netherlands (from 14 now 16), Spain (from 9 to 8) and Canada (from 8 to 9). The 2004 gross domestic product list also confirms that India has joined the league of the world's largest 10.

The list is all the more interesting when those country’s population bases are taken into account. All the countries ranking higher than the Netherlands are much larger and have a far greater population base. With 16.4 million people the Netherlands ranks 58 on the population list.

2004 World Economic Ranking in US$ billion, (2003 ranking in brackets), followed by population and its ranking per population base.

1. United States (1) $11,668 billion, 296 million people, 3;
2. Japan (2) 4,623, 127, 10;
3. Germany (3) 2,714, 82, 14;
4. United Kingdom (4) 2,141, 60, 21;
5. France (5) 2,003, 60, 20;
6. Italy (6) 1,672, 58, 23;
7. China (7) 1,649, 1,306 billion, 1;
8. Spain (9) 991, 43, 27;
9. Canada (8) 980, 32, 35;
10. India (12) 692, 1,080 billion, 2;
11. South Korea (11) 680, 48, 24;
12. Mexico (10) 676, 106, 11;
13. Australia (13) 631, 20, 52;
14. Brazil (15) 605, 186, 5;
15. Russia (16) 582, 143, 8;
16. Netherlands (14) 577, 16, 58;
17. Switzerland (17) 359, 7, 92;
18. Belgium (18) 350, 10, 77;
19. Sweden (19) 346, 9, 84;
20. Turkey (21) 302, 69, 17.

The countries with large populations missing from the list of twenty top economies are: Indonesia (241 million), Pakistan (162), Bangladesh (144), Nigeria (128), Philippines (87), Vietnam (83), Egypt (77), Iran (68), Thailand (65).