International Trade

» Joni Rose - Very interesting article full of fascinating stats.

Very interesting article full of fascinating stats. What, in your opinion, accounts for Luxembourg being so far ahead of the pack?

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» Daniel Workman - Very interesting article full of fascinating stats.

In response to Very interesting article full of fascinating stats. posted by Joni188:

Thank you for your comment. Geographically Luxembourg is bordered by wealthy neighbours Belgium, France & Germany which enables quick export delivery. Luxembourg of course enjoys the benefits of belonging to the EU which includes those powerful neighbours. And Luxembourg's GNP per capita gets a boost from the fact that many of the workers that generate its GNP are transient workers who actually live in nearby nations. When calculating Luxembourg's GNP per capita statistic, those workers are excluded because they are not permanent residents. If a calculation was done to take out transient workers, Luxembourg's lead would not be so formidable! Cheers

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» dantilles - Very interesting article full of fascinating stats.

In response to Very interesting article full of fascinating stats. posted by Daniel2006:

Very interesting article. What I think would be fascinating would be to see how EU membership affects a country's GDP level over time. Ireland and Spain, for example, were relatively poor countries when they joined but now thanks to EU subsidies and becoming part of the common market they are booming. The 10 newest EU members are now feeling the benefits of membership (Estonia being a shining example). In general the EU's primary role has been economic rather than political or cultural (despite what some Europhiles would have you think), and it isn't surprising to see a whole host of countries queuing to join.

In answer to the earlier question, Luxembourg is, ironically, the richest EU country largely because of the EU itself. As many of the Union's institutions are based in Lux, it means there are many well-paid beaurocrats and politicians living there. It also has a few multinational companies headquartered there and therefore many well-off businessmen. The fact it is such a small country means there is little heavy industry or agriculture to speak of (and therefore fewer workers on low wages) which means that the average wage is very high.

-- posted by dantilles

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