Interesting. Of the 100 largest economic entities, 49 are what we - in the old country - would call "states". 51 are corporations - or, what we in the new country, call "sir". Note that this is as of 2000. Wonder what the state is today?
| Rank | Country / Corporation | GDP / sales ($mil) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 8,708,870.00 |
| 2 | Japan | 4,395,083.00 |
| 3 | Germany | 2,081,202.00 |
| 4 | France | 1,410,262.00 |
| 5 | United Kingdom | 1,373,612.00 |
| 6 | Italy | 1,149,958.00 |
| 7 | China | 1,149,814.00 |
| 8 | Brazil | 760,345.00 |
| 9 | Canada | 612,049.00 |
| 10 | Spain | 562,245.00 |
| 11 | Mexico | 474,951.00 |
| 12 | India | 459,765.00 |
| 13 | Korea, Rep. | 406,940.00 |
| 14 | Australia | 389,691.00 |
| 15 | Netherlands | 384,766.00 |
| 16 | Russian Federation | 375,345.00 |
| 17 | Argentina | 281,942.00 |
| 18 | Switzerland | 260,299.00 |
| 19 | Belgium | 245,706.00 |
| 20 | Sweden | 226,388.00 |
| 21 | Austria | 208,949.00 |
| 22 | Turkey | 188,374.00 |
| 23 | General Motors | 176,558.00 |
| 24 | Denmark | 174,363.00 |
| 25 | Wal-Mart | 166,809.00 |
| 26 | Exxon Mobil | 163,881.00 |
| 27 | Ford Motor | 162,558.00 |
| 28 | DaimlerChrysler | 159,985.70 |
| 29 | Poland | 154,146.00 |
| 30 | Norway | 145,449.00 |
| 31 | Indonesia | 140,964.00 |
| 32 | South Africa | 131,127.00 |
| 33 | Saudi Arabia | 128,892.00 |
| 34 | Finland | 126,130.00 |
| 35 | Greece | 123,934.00 |
| 36 | Thailand | 123,887.00 |
| 37 | Mitsui | 118,555.20 |
| 38 | Mitsubishi | 117,765.60 |
| 39 | Toyota Motor | 115,670.90 |
| 40 | General Electric | 111,630.00 |
| 41 | Itochu | 109,068.90 |
| 42 | Portugal | 107,716.00 |
| 43 | Royal Dutch/Shell | 105,366.00 |
| 44 | Venezuela | 103,918.00 |
| 45 | Iran, Islamic rep. | 101,073.00 |
| 46 | Israel | 99,068.00 |
| 47 | Sumitomo | 95,701.60 |
| 48 | Nippon Tel & Tel | 93,591.70 |
| 49 | Egypt, Arab Republic | 92,413.00 |
| 50 | Marubeni | 91,807.40 |
| 51 | Colombia | 88,596.00 |
| 52 | AXA | 87,645.70 |
| 53 | IBM | 87,548.00 |
| 54 | Singapore | 84,945.00 |
| 55 | Ireland | 84,861.00 |
| 56 | BP Amoco | 83,556.00 |
| 57 | Citigroup | 82,005.00 |
| 58 | Volkswagen | 80,072.70 |
| 59 | Nippon Life Insurance | 78,515.10 |
| 60 | Philippines | 75,350.00 |
| 61 | Siemens | 75,337.00 |
| 62 | Malaysia | 74,634.00 |
| 63 | Allianz | 74,178.20 |
| 64 | Hitachi | 71,858.50 |
| 65 | Chile | 71,092.00 |
| 66 | Matsushita Electric Ind. | 65,555.60 |
| 67 | Nissho Iwai | 65,393.20 |
| 68 | ING Group | 62,492.40 |
| 69 | AT&T | 62,391.00 |
| 70 | Philip Morris | 61,751.00 |
| 71 | Sony | 60,052.70 |
| 72 | Pakistan | 59,880.00 |
| 73 | Deutsche Bank | 58,585.10 |
| 74 | Boeing | 57,993.00 |
| 75 | Peru | 57,318.00 |
| 76 | Czech Republic | 56,379.00 |
| 77 | Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Ins. | 55,104.70 |
| 78 | Honda Motor | 54,773.50 |
| 79 | Assicurazioni Generali | 53,723.20 |
| 80 | Nissan Motor | 53,679.90 |
| 81 | New Zealand | 53,622.00 |
| 82 | E.On | 52,227.70 |
| 83 | Toshiba | 51,634.90 |
| 84 | Bank of America | 51,392.00 |
| 85 | Fiat | 51,331.70 |
| 86 | Nestle | 49,694.10 |
| 87 | SBC Communications | 49,489.00 |
| 88 | Credit Suisse | 49,362.00 |
| 89 | Hungary | 48,355.00 |
| 90 | Hewlett-Packard | 48,253.00 |
| 91 | Fujitsu | 47,195.90 |
| 92 | Algeria | 47,015.00 |
| 93 | Metro | 46,663.60 |
| 94 | Sumitomo Life Insur. | 46,445.10 |
| 95 | Bangladesh | 45,779.00 |
| 96 | Tokyo Electric Power | 45,727.70 |
| 97 | Kroger | 45,351.60 |
| 98 | Total Fina Elf | 44,990.30 |
| 99 | NEC | 44,828.00 |
| 100 | State Farm Insurance | 44,637.20 |
Sources: Sales: Fortune, July 31, 2000. GDP: World Bank, World Development Report 2000.
I've just linked to this nasty piece of news...thank you.
The problem here is that corporations have long ruled the world regardless of their GDP. There's no significance of the sales or rank.
A corporation's sales are not comparable to the GDP of a country since GDP includes only value added by the national economy, whereas sales figures include all turnover, regardless of in-house value added. Historically, US firms tended to be the world's largest in terms of value addition, but they have reverted to the global norm of >25% for primary industrials. For smaller firms that figure is much smaller.
Wal*Mart is a very dangerously powerful firm, but of course its power lies in non-quantifiables like regional retail & labor market control; a genuine comparison of value-added to GDP would conceal this. Also, take the example of EADS--the gigantic parent company of Airbus. This tottering monster hides its size through interlocking + bank ownership. It will probably cash in its chips en masse sometime over the next 12 months, since the EU absolutely positively WILL NEVER allow EADS to fail.