The world will be a US$124 Trillion economy in 2026. Which region will be biggest and which remains small?

The world will be a US$124 Trillion economy in 2026. Which region will be biggest and which remains small?

Maybe a quick overview here from my perspective

A long time ago, the European Union (EU) used to be a super powerful economic bloc. Today, they remain a powerful economic bloc, minus the super. A long time ago, China used to be a super fast growing economy. Today, it’s a SUPER huge economy, minus the fast. The world has changed and will continue to change. The USA used to be a super fast growing and super big economy. Today, they are still a super big economy and remains top in economy size in the world. At the same time, they now have a close peer in China.

Malaysian economy in comparison to regional countries with a bigger population?

Malaysia? We are a small nation yeah. I hope we grow faster, else we will soon reach the AGED Nation status. Currently we are AGEING status only (7% of population over 65 years old). AGEING – AGED (14% over 65) – SUPER AGED (20% over 65). Our neighbor Singapore has reached SUPER AGED nation not too long ago and this is why they are doing lots of planning for this. This includes taking in talents who are at their productive years because only by doing this that they will have a productive population versus just a nation of retirees.

We need to keep growing our population (more babies)

Let’s keep growing fast enough but countries with a bigger population will outgrow our size simply because of domestic consumption alone. 60 million people each buying RM10 worth of goods will have a multiplier effect of 4 (typical number from economist) and this becomes 60 million x 10 x 4 = RM2,400. Meanwhile Malaysia can have people spending the same but actual contribution to the economic number will be smaller; 37 million x 10 x 4 = RM1,480. We need to ensure people could spend MORE. That means helping more Malaysians to earn more. 🙂

Here’s the overview from visualcapitalist.com

US still largest, China is 2nd and Germany is 3rd

Both Japan and German are already super aged nations. They can only grow further if their GDP continues to grow. It means they must become even more efficient since they no longer have the population growth to support them. Thus, if we look at the near future, it’s quite a certainty that nations like India, Indonesia or Brazil will start to challenge them to take the 3rd and the 4th place. India’s median age is just 28, Indonesia is at 30 and Brazil is at 35. Meanwhile Germany and Japan’s median age is 47 and 50 respectively.

Plus the fact that both are no longer having population growth. (Both have negative population growth in 2024). China’s also no longer growing in population and was also negative growth in 2024 even if it’s a very small number and possibly reversible with some push by the government… However, China is still growing because if we look at the Per Capita income, this is showing lots of further opportunities for growth. We shall see in a few years time.

Happy knowing and maybe we can look back at this article 5 years down the road.

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