The Stimulus Package Exceeds the GDP of All But 14 Countries

The Gross Domestic Product of a country is the market estimate of the collected value of all goods and services produced by that country in a given year. Not including the EU as a single entity, the United States had the highest in 2007 according the IMF with a GDP of $13,807,550,000,000. By this estimate, the stimulus package, valued at $789,000,000,000 represents 5.7% (thanks washerdreyer... Mrs. Callery would be so disappointed in me) of our total GDP (gulp).

It's really hard to wrap my mind around just what $789 billion is, as I've never had to deal with numbers that large in my life, especially with regards to finances. In fact, I need to keep counting 0s just to make sure I'm representing these numbers correctly. One way I tried to put this into perspective for myself was to take a look at the IMF 2007 report to see how our little 5.7% stimulus matched up against the GDP of other countries. I was hoping to list for you every country it exceeded.

Turns out, it's a lot easier to list the ones that it didn't. I'll list the ones that did below the fold.

Countries With a Higher GDP Than $789 Billion



Please note, South (and North) Korea appear to be missing from the IMF's data. Other lists I have found show South Korea as having a GDP in excess of $789 billion. I will endeavor to find out why this is left off of the list the IMF provides on its website.

UPDATE: I just had an interesting back and forth with Erick Erickson of Red State. He pointed out that if the temporary programs in the bill don't turn out to be temporary, that likely puts the cost at $3 trillion, meaning the only countries with a GDP in excess of the bill are the US, Japan, Germany, and China. Read Erick's assessment of the likelihood of job creation here.

For the 157 countries on the IMF's chart that have a GDP under $789 billion, click below the fold.

Kiribati

São Tomé and Príncipe

Tonga

Dominica

Guinea-Bissau

Solomon Islands

Timor-Leste, Dem. Rep. of

Comoros

Samoa

Vanuatu

St. Kitts and Nevis

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Grenada

Gambia, The

Seychelles

Liberia

Djibouti

St. Lucia

Burundi

Maldives

Guyana

Antigua and Barbuda

Bhutan

Belize

Eritrea

Cape Verde

Lesotho

Sierra Leone

Central African Republic

Suriname

Togo

Mauritania

Swaziland

Fiji

Rwanda

Barbados

Montenegro

Malawi

Tajikistan

Mongolia

Guinea

Niger

Moldova

Benin

Nicaragua

Papua New Guinea

Haiti

Bahamas, The

Burkina Faso

Mauritius

Mali

Chad

Namibia

Malta

Congo, Republic of

Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic of

Madagascar

Mozambique

Cambodia

Armenia

Afghanistan, Rep. of.

Georgia

Nepal

Congo, Democratic Republic of

Albania

Senegal

Jamaica

Gabon

Uganda

Paraguay

Brunei Darussalam

Honduras

Botswana

Equatorial Guinea

Bolivia

Myanmar

Ghana

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Jordan

Tanzania

Bahrain

Ethiopia

Panama

Côte d'Ivoire

Iceland

El Salvador

Cameroon

Trinidad and Tobago

Estonia

Cyprus

Uzbekistan

Uruguay

Lebanon

Turkmenistan

Costa Rica

Kenya

Azerbaijan

Sri Lanka

Guatemala

Tunisia

Lithuania

Syrian Arab Republic

Bulgaria

Serbia

Oman

Dominican Republic

Belarus

Ecuador

Slovenia

Sudan

Luxembourg

Croatia

Angola

Libya

Qatar

Bangladesh

Slovak Republic

Morocco

Kazakhstan

Peru

Egypt

New Zealand

Algeria

Hungary

Ukraine

Pakistan

Philippines

Singapore

Chile

Israel

Romania

Nigeria

Czech Republic

Malaysia

United Arab Emirates

Colombia

Hong Kong SAR

Portugal

Thailand

Finland

Argentina

Ireland

South Africa

Iran, Islamic Republic of

Denmark

Greece

Austria

Saudi Arabia

Taiwan Province of China

Norway

Poland

Switzerland

Indonesia

Belgium

Sweden

Turkey

Netherlands