Russia
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 67.1 years
male: 60.55 years (That's up from 54 only 3 years ago)
female: 74.04 years (2005 est.)
GDP: purchasing power parity - $1.408 trillion (2004 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 4.9% industry: 33.9% services: 61.2% (2004 est.)
Investment (gross fixed): 19.1% of GDP (2004 est.)
Public debt: 28.2% of GDP (2004 est.)
Industrial production growth rate: 6.4% (2004 est.)
Exports: $162.5 billion (2004 est.)
Exports - commodities: petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures
Debt - external: $169.6 billion (2004 est.)
POLAND:
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 74.41 years
male: 70.3 years
female: 78.76 years (2005 est.)
Economy - overview: Poland has steadfastly pursued a policy of economic liberalization throughout the 1990s and today stands out as a success story among transition economies. Even so, much remains to be done, especially in bringing down unemployment. The privatization of small and medium-sized state-owned companies and a liberal law on establishing new firms has encouraged the development of the private business sector, but legal and bureaucratic obstacles alongside persistent corruption are hampering its further development. Poland's agricultural sector remains handicapped by surplus labor, inefficient small farms, and lack of investment. Restructuring and privatization of "sensitive sectors" (e.g., coal, steel, railroads, and energy), while recently initiated, have stalled. Reforms in health care, education, the pension system, and state administration have resulted in larger-than-expected fiscal pressures. Further progress in public finance depends mainly on reducing losses in Polish state enterprises, restraining entitlements, and overhauling the tax code to incorporate the growing gray economy and farmers, most of whom pay no tax. The government has introduced a package of social and administrative spending cuts to reduce public spending by about $17 billion through 2007. Additional reductions are under discussion in the legislature but could be trumped by election-year politics in 2005. Poland joined the EU in May 2004, and surging exports to the EU contributed to Poland's strong growth in 2004, though its competitiveness could be threatened by the zloty's appreciation. GDP per capita roughly equals that of the three Baltic states. Poland stands to benefit from nearly $13.5 billion in EU funds, available through 2006. Farmers have already begun to reap the rewards of membership via higher food prices and EU agricultural subsidies [So it's basing extra growth on hand outs, wonder how long those will last with the rest of the EU flushing their economies]
GDP: purchasing power parity - $463 billion (2004 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 5.6% (2004 est.)
Investment (gross fixed): 18.4% of GDP (2004 est.)
Unemployment rate: 19.5% (2004 est.)
Public debt: 49.9% of GDP (2004 est.)
Industrial production growth rate: 10% (2004 est.)
Exports: $75.98 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Imports: $81.61 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
TRADE DEFICIT!
Exports - commodities: machinery and transport equipment 37.8%, intermediate manufactured goods 23.7%, miscellaneous manufactured goods 17.1%, food and live animals 7.6% (2003)
Debt - external: $99.15 billion (2004 est.)
But one of the MAIN THINGS TO CONSIDER:
Russia:
Budget:
revenues: $106.4 billion
expenditures: $93.33 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2004 est.)
Poland
Budget:
revenues: $44.52 billion
expenditures: $54.93 billion, including capital
expenditures of NA (2004 est.)
Therefore: Poland has massive unemployment, running a government and a trade deficit. Has an economy of about 24% the size of Russia's but a debt of almost 60% of Russia's and while Russia relies on high oil prices to keep it's burst up, Poland is relying on high subsidies (hand outs) from a collapsing EU economy.
Only 24%?? God help us, we're doomed!!!
JB6, why don't you emigrate to Russia? It's such a wonderful place! You can have as much oil there as you want. I suppose Russia is much better than America (not to mention China, the biggest capitalist country in the world), what do you think?
You can swap you passport with with Zhirinovski.
Ergo, $9,800 * (1 + .067) * (1 - .115) / (1 - .0037) = $9,288
Poland
GDP 2004: $12,000
GDP growth: 5.6%
Inflation rate: 3.4%
Population growth: .03%
Ergo, $12,000 * (1 + .056) * (1 - .034) / (1 + .0003)= $12,237
In real terms, over the course of 2004, Russians would have grown poorer, whereas Poles would have grown richer.
Since it's 2005 now, and you have, I assume, some knowledge (whether first or second hand) of the Polish side of the equation, are things improving in Poland, economy wise, and is there a "gray market" which accounts for some of the unemployed? (Working, but not on the books for tax purposes.)