Author Description

This Handbook provides basic worldwide statistics for comparing the economic performance of major countries and regions. In general, the data are for 1970, 1980, and individual years in the period 1990-97. Data have been adjusted, where necessary, to achieve comparability and therefore may differ from data presented in the original sources. The GDP data represent the latest available estimates for individual countries, regional groupings, and world totals. Dozens of figures and tables include: economic profiles and trends; OECD country trends; energy; agriculture; foreign trade and aid; and environmental topics.