The B&R's regional growth potential is world's greatest

Growth potential

However, as the average growth rates in countries in the B&R region are much faster than those in either North America or the EU, the growth potential of B&R is much greater than those other centres. As Figure 2 shows, the IMF's data projects an increase in GDP in the B&R region in 2016-2021 of $11.3 trillion – compared to $5.8 trillion in North America and $2.4 trillion in the EU.

Translating this into percentages of world growth, Figure 3 projects the B&R region as accounting for 46 percent of world GDP growth in 2016-2021 – compared to 24 percent in North America, and 10 percent in the EU. Therefore, almost one half of world economic growth in 2016-2021 is projected to occur in the B&R region – compared to less than one quarter in any other major economic center.

The growth potential of the B&R region, in both percentage and absolute terms, is therefore overwhelmingly higher than that of any other economic region – with a projected growth in dollar terms almost twice that of North America, and over four times that of Europe. This means the B&R region provides by a huge margin the most rapidly expanding market in the world.

The global economy in 2021

The reshaping of the world economy over the next five years by the B&R region is clearly the greatest of any part of the world economy. This reshaping of the world economy resulting from the B&R is shown clearly by Figure 4. By 2021, the GDP of the B&R region, calculated from IMF data, will be $29.7 trillion, compared to $21.1 trillion for North America and $18.3 trillion for the EU. In percentage terms the B&R region will be 31.3 percent of world GDP – compared to 27.3 percent for North America and 19.2 percent for the EU.