The G20’s Economic Weight
What share of the global economy is represented at the G20 summit?
December 2, 2018
1. The 43 countries of the G20 (counting all EU member-countries) produce 85% of the world’s nominal GDP ($63.1 trillion /€56.4 trillion).
2. It is especially this economic heft that makes G20 cooperation on resolving economic issues of trade, finance and legal compliance across world borders so important.
3. The country with the smallest economy represented individually in the G20 is South Africa ($313 billion/€280 billion).
4. The largest economy is the United States ($18 trillion/€16 trillion), which is just ahead of the EU’s 28-member economy ($16 trillion/€14.5 trillion).
5. Although the G20 was formed in 1999 and there is dynamic change in the world economy, it remains fairly representative of leading economies.
6. The G20 nearly two decades on still includes 19 of the world’s 20 largest economies. (Spain and the Netherlands are represented via the EU).
7. Switzerland is the only top-20 economy not represented in the G20 in any capacity.
8. However, South Africa’s economy is smaller than the non-G20 economies of Nigeria, Iran, Thailand, Norway, Venezuela, the UAE or Egypt.
9. These non-G20 countries are all key economic or political players in their respective regions who do no get to participate in G20 decisionmaking.
Sources: The Globalist Research Center, World Bank