What is the richest country in the world? — Какая самая богатая страна в мире? Это очень распространенный вопрос. Существуют различные способы измерения, насколько богата страна. Иногда люди делают это на основе размера всей экономики страны. Некоторые люди считают, что Соединенные Штаты являются самой богатой страной в мире, потому что в целом ее экономика широкомасштабна. Но иногда мы измеряем, насколько богата страна, основываясь на средний доход людей.
That is a very common question. There are different ways to measure how rich a country is. Sometimes people do it based on the size of the country’s whole economy. Sometimes people say the United States is the richest country in the world because, on the whole, its economy is large-scale. But sometimes we measure how rich a country is based on the average income of the people there.
The richest country in the world — какие критерии?
In a new study by the IMF (International Monetary Fund), they use the criterion of GDP divided by the number of people in that country. But they adjusted the averages for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) to give us more of a reasonable idea of the lifestyle that you can achieve with that kind of income in that country. So based on those criteriaмн.число от criterion the richest country in the world is Qatar.
Катар — страна на Ближнем Востоке
Qatar is a country in the Middle East. It’s situated just to the east of Saudi Arabia on the Persian Gulf. The majority of Qatar’s wealth comes from resources. In 1939 oil was discovered in Qatar, and in 1971 a huge natural gas reserve was discovered in Qatar. It’s actually the biggest in the world after Russia and Iran. The oil and the natural gas together form about 60% of the GDP of Qatar.
Катар — экспортер природного газа
In fact over the past 15 years 14 natural gas plants have been built in Qatar with the help of international oil companies. Qatar is the seventh-largest Exporter of natural gas in the world. And it’s the number one exporter of liquid natural gas in the world. In recent years Qatar has rapidly developed. It should be noted that part of its development has been based on the backs of very poorly compensated labourers from South Asia.
This is one of the big scandals surrounding the development of Qatar. Those people from South Asia have terrible working conditions reportedly and often they’re working as indentured servants because they have to pay back some agent who brought them over from India, from Pakistan. This is one of the dark sides of Qatar’s economic development.
Средний доход граждан Катара
The average income in Qatar is $105,000 per person per year now. That includes residents of Qatar, not just the citizens of Qatar. If you’re looking at just the citizens, then the number could be much higher because the local citizens get a lot of different benefits from the government that foreign expats do not get.
For example, they get the free education, free healthcare, they get basically guaranteed employment in the Civil Service which is easy street.Состояние финансового комфорта и безопасности They don’t really have to worry about performance very much, they get free housing after they get married. They get a free plot of land with a house. They get free water, electricity.
Чрезмерное потребление — результат чрезмерного богатства
And a large portion of Qatar’s citizens gets some kind of allowance from the government. It depends on the family connections: how close their family is to the ruling family. But a lot of people get paid an allowance that’s not related to their employment. So the average income for Qatar’s citizens can be as high as 400,000$ per year.
Of course with all that wealth and with the local people having so many benefits one of the downsides is over 50% of the population in Qatar is overweight and it’s becoming a big problem. 17% of the people have diabetes as well so this is one of the issues. Overconsumption is a result of this excessive wealth in Qatar.
Забота о будущем
One of the worries of Qatar for the future is that their resources might start to decline or the consumption of oil might start to decline and that will decrease their wealth. So, they’re investing their oil revenues and their natural gas revenues in other income streams. They have an investment in real estate, in International Banks, and some major Global corporations.
Basically, they are taking their oil wealth and investing it in a hedge fund so that they can have some kind of guarantee wealth in the future. So that is the question mark hanging over the head of Qatar: can it continue to be the richest country in the future? Wait and see.