Though the impact of the U.S. economy on driving global economic growth is higher than it was several years ago, it is still not as pronounced as it was two decades ago. Data supplied by the World Bank indicate that America accounted for an estimated zero point six percentage points of the world’s two point four percent growth rate last year.
That means that the U.S. was responsible for roughly a quarter of the world’s growth in twenty fifteen. However, if one goes back to the late 1990s, America’s impact was even greater. As indicated by writer David Harrison, in percentage terms, the U.S. contributed more than twenty eight percent of the world’s growth in nineteen ninety six, nearly 30 percent in nineteen ninety seven and an incredible forty seven percent in nineteen ninety eight when many Asian countries were dealing with financial crises.
The days of that level of U.S. contribution to world growth are likely behind us. Though China’s economy has slowed recently, in twenty thirteen, that nation single-handedly accounted for nearly a third of the world’s economic expansion. America’s contribution to global growth is expected to be less than sixteen percent in twenty eighteen. China’s contribution is expected to be greater than twenty six percent.
