Largest Economies in the world 2015

World’s largest economy is U.S.A followed  by China . Other largest economies include Japan, Germany , U.k , France and India. This is present world order. But if you look by growth rate India is the moving faster than all with annual  growth rate of 7.5% followed by Qatar. China once the fastest growing economy has slowed down and is growing at  6+ growth rate.  ¹.  

It's a tough task

Finding largest economy is a hard task and at best a approximation. The most commonly used criteria is nominal GDP . But it is filled with many problems. Major problem with nominal GDP approach is that it does not take into  account  the cost of living in different countries. Mere fluctuation in exchange rate can change the ranking of different economies.  There is another method of ranking which uses Purchasing Power Parity basis(PPP). It gave different ranking order. Ranking based on Nominal GDP and GDP at PPP is given below for top 10 largest economies

Ranking of largest economies based on nominal GDP and GDP at PPP

GDP in terms of PPP takes into account the cost of living in different countries therefore it    is much better indicator of average living standard. 

Some Interesting facts

1. Nominal GDP of top ten economies adds up to 65% of world economies. 

2. Total of 172 countries constitute only 25 percent of world's economy.

3. When measured in terms of nominal GDP U.S. A is the largest economy valued at $             17.41 trillion. But if you uses measure GDP at  Purchasing  power parity (PPP) U.S.A            loses its number one spot and is replaced by China.

4. Interestingly India based on nominal GDP ranks at tenth while it rank third in terms of           purchasing power parity.

Conclusion

 Global economic order is changing very fast. New opportunities are emerging. Only those economies  that will able to seize these opportunities will rise and be next superpower.