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Economy Stats: compare key data on Saint Helena & United States

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Definitions

  • Budget > Expenditures: Expenditures calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms
  • Budget > Revenues: Revenues calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms
  • Currency: The national medium of exchange and its basic sub-unit.
  • Overview: This entry briefly describes the type of economy, including the degree of market orientation, the level of economic development, the most important natural resources, and the unique areas of specialization. It also characterizes major economic events and policy changes in the most recent 12 months and may include a statement about one or two key future macroeconomic trends.
  • Exports: This entry provides the total US dollar amount of merchandise exports on an f.o.b. (free on board) basis. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.
  • Exports > Commodities: This entry provides a listing of the highest-valued exported products; it sometimes includes the percent of total dollar value.
  • Fiscal year: The beginning and ending months for a country's accounting period of 12 months, which often is the calendar year but which may begin in any month. All yearly references are for the calendar year (CY) unless indicated as a noncalendar fiscal year (FY).
  • GDP > Per capita > PPP: This entry shows GDP on a purchasing power parity basis divided by population as of 1 July for the same year.
  • GDP > Purchasing power parity: This entry gives the gross domestic product (GDP) or value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year. A nation's GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates is the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices prevailing in the United States. This is the measure most economists prefer when looking at per-capita welfare and when comparing living conditions or use of resources across countries. The measure is difficult to compute, as a US dollar value has to be assigned to all goods and services in the country regardless of whether these goods and services have a direct equivalent in the United States (for example, the value of an ox-cart or non-US military equipment); as a result, PPP estimates for some countries are based on a small and sometimes different set of goods and services. In addition, many countries do not formally participate in the World Bank's PPP project that calculates these measures, so the resulting GDP estimates for these countries may lack precision. For many developing countries, PPP-based GDP measures are multiples of the official exchange rate (OER) measure. The difference between the OER- and PPP-denominated GDP values for most of the weathly industrialized countries are generally much smaller.
  • Imports: This entry provides the total US dollar amount of merchandise imports on a c.i.f. (cost, insurance, and freight) or f.o.b. (free on board) basis. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.
  • Industries: A rank ordering of industries starting with the largest by value of annual output.
  • Inflation rate > Consumer prices: This entry furnishes the annual percent change in consumer prices compared with the previous year's consumer prices.
  • Labor force: This entry contains the total labor force figure.
  • Unemployment rate: This entry contains the percent of the labor force that is without jobs. Substantial underemployment might be noted.
  • Exchange rates: The official value of a country's monetary unit at a given date or over a given period of time, as expressed in units of local currency per US dollar and as determined by international market forces or official fiat.
  • Trade > Imports: This entry provides the total US dollar amount of merchandise imports on a c.i.f. (cost, insurance, and freight) or f.o.b. (free on board) basis. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.
  • Oil > Exports: This entry is the total oil exported in barrels per day (bbl/day), including both crude oil and oil products.
    Additional details:
    • Bahamas, The: transshipments of 41,570 bbl/day (2007)
    • Bahamas, The: transshipments of 41,610 bbl/day (2009)
  • Oil > Production: This entry is the total oil produced in barrels per day (bbl/day). The discrepancy between the amount of oil produced and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is due to the omission of stock changes, refinery gains, and other complicating factors.
  • Trade > Exports: The total US dollar amount of exports on an f.o.b. (free on board) basis.
  • Imports > Commodities: This entry provides a listing of the highest-valued imported products; it sometimes includes the percent of total dollar value.
  • Labor force per thousand people: This entry contains the total labor force figure. Figures expressed per thousand people for the same year.
  • Oil > Proved reserves: This entry is the stock of proved reserves of crude oil in barrels (bbl). Proved reserves are those quantities of petroleum which, by analysis of geological and engineering data, can be estimated with a high degree of confidence to be commercially recoverable from a given date forward, from known reservoirs and under current economic conditions.
  • Natural gas > Production: This entry is the total natural gas produced in cubic meters (cu m). The discrepancy between the amount of natural gas produced and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is due to the omission of stock changes and other complicating factors.
  • Oil > Consumption: This entry is the total oil consumed in barrels per day (bbl/day). The discrepancy between the amount of oil produced and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is due to the omission of stock changes, refinery gains, and other complicating factors.
  • Electricity > Consumption: This entry consists of total electricity generated annually plus imports and minus exports, expressed in kilowatt-hours. The discrepancy between the amount of electricity generated and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is accounted for as loss in transmission and distribution.
  • Oil > Consumption per thousand people: This entry is the total oil consumed in barrels per day (bbl/day). The discrepancy between the amount of oil produced and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is due to the omission of stock changes, refinery gains, and other complicating factors. Figures expressed per thousand people for the same year.
  • Electricity > Production: This entry is the annual electricity generated expressed in kilowatt-hours. The discrepancy between the amount of electricity generated and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is accounted for as loss in transmission and distribution.
  • Oil > Production per thousand people: This entry is the total oil produced in barrels per day (bbl/day). The discrepancy between the amount of oil produced and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is due to the omission of stock changes, refinery gains, and other complicating factors. Figures expressed per thousand people for the same year.
  • Oil > Imports: This entry is the total oil imported in barrels per day (bbl/day), including both crude oil and oil products.
  • Natural gas > Proved reserves: This entry is the stock of proved reserves of natural gas in cubic meters (cu m). Proved reserves are those quantities of natural gas, which, by analysis of geological and engineering data, can be estimated with a high degree of confidence to be commercially recoverable from a given date forward, from known reservoirs and under current economic conditions.
  • Natural gas > Consumption: This entry is the total natural gas consumed in cubic meters (cu m). The discrepancy between the amount of natural gas produced and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is due to the omission of stock changes and other complicating factors.
  • Natural gas > Proved reserves per capita: This entry is the stock of proved reserves of natural gas in cubic meters (cu m). Proved reserves are those quantities of natural gas, which, by analysis of geological and engineering data, can be estimated with a high degree of confidence to be commercially recoverable from a given date forward, from known reservoirs and under current economic conditions. Figures expressed per capita for the same year.
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STAT Saint Helena United States HISTORY
Agriculture > Products coffee, corn, potatoes, vegetables; timber; fish, lobster; livestock wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton; beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish; forest products
Budget > Expenditures $25.14 million
Ranked 23th. 		$3.54 trillion
Ranked 1st. 140732 times more than Saint Helena
Budget > Revenues $10.23 million
Ranked 217th. 		$2.45 trillion
Ranked 1st. 239394 times more than Saint Helena
Currency Saint Helenian pound US dollar
Overview The economy depends largely on financial assistance from the UK, which amounted to about $27 million in FY06/07 or more than twice the level of annual budgetary revenues. The local population earns income from fishing, raising livestock, and sales of handicrafts. Because there are few jobs, 25% of the work force has left to seek employment on Ascension Island, on the Falklands, and in the UK. The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $49,800. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. US business firms enjoy greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new products. At the same time, they face higher barriers to enter their rivals' home markets than foreign firms face entering US markets. US firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and in medical, aerospace, and military equipment; their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II. The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households. Since 1996, dividends and capital gains have grown faster than wages or any other category of after-tax income. Imported oil accounts for nearly 55% of US consumption. Crude oil prices doubled between 2001 and 2006, the year home prices peaked; higher gasoline prices ate into consumers' budgets and many individuals fell behind in their mortgage payments. Oil prices climbed another 50% between 2006 and 2008, and bank foreclosures more than doubled in the same period. Besides dampening the housing market, soaring oil prices caused a drop in the value of the dollar and a deterioration in the US merchandise trade deficit, which peaked at $840 billion in 2008. The sub-prime mortgage crisis, falling home prices, investment bank failures, tight credit, and the global economic downturn pushed the United States into a recession by mid-2008. GDP contracted until the third quarter of 2009, making this the deepest and longest downturn since the Great Depression. To help stabilize financial markets, in October 2008 the US Congress established a $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The government used some of these funds to purchase equity in US banks and industrial corporations, much of which had been returned to the government by early 2011. In January 2009 the US Congress passed and President Barack OBAMA signed a bill providing an additional $787 billion fiscal stimulus to be used over 10 years - two-thirds on additional spending and one-third on tax cuts - to create jobs and to help the economy recover. In 2010 and 2011, the federal budget deficit reached nearly 9% of GDP. In 2012 the federal government reduced the growth of spending and the deficit shrank to 7.6% of GDP. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan required major shifts in national resources from civilian to military purposes and contributed to the growth of the budget deficit and public debt. Through 2011, the direct costs of the wars totaled nearly $900 billion, according to US government figures. US revenues from taxes and other sources are lower, as a percentage of GDP, than those of most other countries. In March 2010, President OBAMA signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a health insurance reform that was designed to extend coverage to an additional 32 million American citizens by 2016, through private health insurance for the general population and Medicaid for the impoverished. Total spending on health care - public plus private - rose from 9.0% of GDP in 1980 to 17.9% in 2010. In July 2010, the president signed the DODD-FRANK Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a law designed to promote financial stability by protecting consumers from financial abuses, ending taxpayer bailouts of financial firms, dealing with troubled banks that are "too big to fail," and improving accountability and transparency in the financial system - in particular, by requiring certain financial derivatives to be traded in markets that are subject to government regulation and oversight. In December 2012, the Federal Reserve Board announced plans to purchase $85 billion per month of mortgage-backed and Treasury securities in an effort to hold down long-term interest rates, and to keep short term rates near zero until unemployment drops to 6.5% from the December rate of 7.8%, or until inflation rises above 2.5%. Long-term problems include stagnation of wages for lower-income families, inadequate investment in deteriorating infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, energy shortages, and sizable current account and budget deficits - including significant budget shortages for state governments.
Exports $19.00 million
Ranked 7th. 		$1.56 trillion
Ranked 2nd. 82158 times more than Saint Helena
Exports > Commodities fish (frozen, canned, and salt-dried skipjack, tuna), coffee, handicrafts agricultural products (soybeans, fruit, corn) 9.2%, industrial supplies (organic chemicals) 26.8%, capital goods (transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, telecommunications equipment) 49.0%, consumer goods (automobiles, medicines) 15.0%
Fiscal year 1 April - 31 March 1
GDP > Per capita > PPP $2,500.00
Ranked 1st. 		$51,700.00
Ranked 6th. 21 times more than Saint Helena
GDP > Purchasing power parity $18.00 million
Ranked 1st. 		$16.24 trillion
Ranked 1st. 902222 times more than Saint Helena
Imports $45.00 million
Ranked 13th. 		$2.30 trillion
Ranked 1st. 51178 times more than Saint Helena
Industries construction, crafts (furniture, lacework, fancy woodwork), fishing, philatelic sales highly diversified, world leading, high-technology innovator, second largest industrial output in world; petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining
Inflation rate > Consumer prices 3.2%
Ranked 1st. 52% more than United States 		2.1%
Ranked 160th.
Labor force 2
Ranked 202nd. 		155
Ranked 39th. 78 times more than Saint Helena
Unemployment rate 14%
Ranked 2nd. 73% more than United States 		8.1%
Ranked 47th.
Exchange rates Saint Helenian pounds (SHP) per US dollar -<br />0.6388 (2010)<br />0.6175 (2009)<br />0.4993 (2007)<br />0.5418 (2006)<br /> <strong>British pounds per US dollar: </strong>0.6324 (2012 est.), 0.624 (2011 est.), 0.6472 (2010), 0.6175 (2009), 0.5302 (2008)<br /><strong>Canadian dollars per US dollar:</strong> (2012 est.), 1.001 (2012 est.), 0.9895 (2011 est), 1.0302 (2010 est.), 1.1431 (2009), 1.0364 (2008)<br /><strong>Chinese yuan per US dollar:</strong> (2011 est.), 6.311 (2012 est.), 6.4615 (20111 est.), 6.7703 (2010 est.), 6.8314 (2009), 6.9385 (2008)<br /><strong>euros per US dollar:</strong> 0.7838 (2012 est.), 0.7185 (2011 est.), 0.755 (2010 est.), 0.7198 (2009), 0.6827 (2008)<br /><strong>Japanese yen per US dollar:</strong> 79.42 (2012 est.), 79.81 (2011 est.), 87.78 (2010), 93.57 (2009), 103.58 (2008)
GDP > CIA Factbook $18.00 million
Ranked 2nd. 		$10.99 trillion
Ranked 1st. 610556 times more than Saint Helena
Trade > Imports $45.00 million
Ranked 56th. 		$1.90 trillion
Ranked 1st. 42289 times more than Saint Helena
Oil > Exports 0.0
Ranked 205th. 		1.92 million bbl/day
Ranked 9th.
Oil > Production 0.0
Ranked 210th. 		9.69 million bbl/day
Ranked 3rd.
Trade > Exports $19.00 million
Ranked 49th. 		$1.27 trillion
Ranked 3rd. 66842 times more than Saint Helena
Imports > Commodities food, beverages, tobacco, fuel oils, animal feed, building materials, motor vehicles and parts, machinery and parts agricultural products 4.9%, industrial supplies 32.9% (crude oil 8.2%), capital goods 30.4% (computers, telecommunications equipment, motor vehicle parts, office machines, electric power machinery), consumer goods 31.8% (automobiles, clothing, medicines, furniture, toys)
Labor force per thousand people 0.26
Ranked 78th. 531 times more than United States 		0.000489
Ranked 115th.
Oil > Proved reserves 0.0
Ranked 198th. 		20.68 billion bbl
Ranked 13th.
Natural gas > Production 0.0
Ranked 190th. 		611 billion cu m
Ranked 1st.
Oil > Consumption 100 bbl/day
Ranked 209th. 		19.15 million bbl/day
Ranked 1st. 191500 times more than Saint Helena
Electricity > Consumption 7.44 million kWh
Ranked 165th. 		3.74 trillion kWh
Ranked 1st. 502823 times more than Saint Helena
Oil > Consumption per thousand people 13.04 bbl/day
Ranked 107th. 		61.91 bbl/day
Ranked 21st. 5 times more than Saint Helena
Electricity > Production 8 million kWh
Ranked 133th. 		3.95 trillion kWh
Ranked 1st. 494125 times more than Saint Helena
Oil > Production per thousand people 0.0
Ranked 209th. 		31.32 bbl/day
Ranked 28th.
Oil > Imports 85 bbl/day
Ranked 197th. 		10.27 million bbl/day
Ranked 1st. 120824 times more than Saint Helena
Natural gas > Proved reserves 0.0
Ranked 199th. 		6.93 trillion cu m
Ranked 6th.
Natural gas > Consumption 0.0
Ranked 191st. 		683.3 billion cu m
Ranked 1st.
Natural gas > Proved reserves per capita 0.0
Ranked 197th. 		22,397.07 cu m
Ranked 30th.

SOURCES: CIA World Factbooks 18 December 2003 to 28 March 2011; All CIA World Factbooks 18 December 2003 to 18 December 2008; CIA World Factbooks 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013; CIA World Factbook 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013; CIA World Factbooks 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Population figures from World Bank: (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects, (2) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Report (various years), (3) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (4) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (5) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme, and (6) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database.

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