中国,英国,德国各自的GDP情况

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I’m Emily Chang in Beijing.

China’s economy is massive, complex and official statistics are often disputed. But we do know that this is the epitome of an export-driven economy. Here exports account for more than a third of GDP and in an economic crisis it’s clear that’s far too much with demand slumping in the US and Europe, so are Chinese exports. Right now they are a major drag on GDP growth. So the Chinese government is pumping an uNPRecedented amount of money into the economy with that 586 billion dollars stimulus plan and more than a trillion dollars in loans. In total, investment accounts for 88% of economic growth so far this year. And that’s dangerous too. Analysts say China is nearly propping up its exports sector that this kind of growth is not sustainable and now what China really needs to do is focus on restructuring its economy to rely less on exports and more on domestic consumption.

Here in the UK, GDP is calculated according to international accounting standard, some three and a half weeks after the end of the quarter, we get the first estimated GDP based on output, income. Then eight weeks after the end of the quarter, we get the more reliable second estimate based on output, income and expenditure. That’s when we get the first indication of whether the economy is expanding or contracting. Interestingly, agriculture makes up only 1% of the UK's economy, industry 24%, while the services sector makes up a whopping 74% of the economy, and it's that sector that’s been particularly hard hit in this recession.

I'm Fred Pleitgen in Berlin, Germany where this country is paying a lot of attention to Germany's exports because they are the main and most important component of Germany's growth domestic product, the GDP. Now the exports have been going down significantly in the past couple of months. Germany actually used to be the world's largest export nation. Right now that title is very much up for grabs as exports have been slipping especially those to the United States. Americans simply aren't buying any more German cars, but other things as well, things like machine tools and dental equipment. Germany exports a lot of things and America was always one of this country’s best buyers. The big problem there is of course the financial crisis, but also the continuing weakness of the dollar and the strength of the Euro that’s giving exporters in this country a lot of problems.

Vocabulary:

1.       the epitome of sth: the best possible example of something

2.       prop up: to help an economy, industry, or government so that it can continue to exist, especially by giving money

3.       whopping: very large

4.       up for grabs: available for anyone to take, win, or settle