Economic recession has hit countries of the entire world hard. It included even the most booming ones like India and China, where the estimated growth was not reached. In case of India, it happened to achieve lesser growth than the expected even though the economy did expand. So, a question remains which countries survived the economic recession best?
Answer – Australia
Servcorp carried out the survey. The countries that were worst hit were all the Western ones. The unemployment is growing high in the developed West, whereas it went up even in the Third World Arab countries, which are traditionally having a high unemployment. In the survey too, the list does not have any name in the top 10 except for Canada.
It seems having a not so open economy helps. The external diseases do not hit hard enough, but conversely when the world economy booms, the external growth does not come in fast too. Followed by Australia were China and India/Singapore. New Zealand stands at ninth stop. Many names are from the Eastern world. Clearly, this is the century where rise of the Asian countries phenomenon can be seen. In his book, ‘The Post – American World’, Fareed Zakaria talks in detail about the phenomenon which he calls ‘The Rise of The Rest’. It means the rise of other powers apart from America.
The 19th century belonged to the British, the 20th century belonged to the Americans, and it seems the 21st century belongs to Asians!
As for the major western powers, there were all booming when the world markets were booming. The effect of recession they felt was also high when the global recession took place.
It is not so easy to say whether an open economy helps or not. In most cases, an open economy only helps. If the whole world opted for open economies, well, the world would be much more free, peaceful and prosperous then. Countries indulging into free trade do not have any skirmishes or any problems with each other. That is the beauty of free trade.
A British politician, Richard Cobden once (1857) wrote:
Free Trade is God’s diplomacy and there is no other certain way of uniting people in the bonds of peace.
At this time of recession, Obama’s policies are turning out more protectionists. Pranab Mukherji, earlier Foreign Minister of India had also accused him for the same. This same mistake was done by the Western countries back in ‘70s and the outcome was nothing good. What different can we predict in case of America?
Coming to the survey, when people in Australia were asked which countries do they find surviving the recession best, Australia was the answer from their side as well!
Still, I do have a doubt. The survey was carried out by Servcorp. It seems an Australian based firm, and if you observe, the countries that you find there in the survey list are very close to the ones where the firm has its locations! http://www.servcorp.net/serviced-virtual-offices/locations.html
Now, that is quite fuzzy, but still I would rather rely this as Australian Dollar is hitting high from last eight months even in the times of recession.
The survey is here
The top countries best surviving the global recession:
1st – Australia
2nd – China
3rd – India and Singapore (equal)
5th – Hong Kong
6th – Canada
7th – Japan and Qatar (equal)
9th – New Zealand
10th – Malaysia, Sweden and Vietnam (equal)
