Russia overtakes Germany to become fifth largest economy

Russia has overtaken Germany as the fifth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity, according to the latest World Bank ranking that measures 214 economies based on their 2012 GDP performance. Russia’s oil and export driven economy is ranked fifth amongst the top ten economies in the world with $3.4 trillion in GDP. In 2011, Germany surpassed Russia in GDP with $3.227 trillion compared to Russia’s $3.203 trillion. In 2005, Russia was in eighth place. The report was published last week in an annual ranking of GDP. The World Bank also updated their ranking of countries in terms of gross national product (GNP) per capita, grouping Russia in the ‘high income’ nation block, with individual yearly income of $12,616 or more. The United States was ranked by the World Bank as the world’s largest economy by purchasing power parity last year with $15.7 trillion, followed by China with $12.5 trillion, India with $4.8 trillion, and Japan with $4.5 trillion. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday at a meeting dedicated to the socio-economic situation and the development of entrepreneurial activities in the TransBaikal Territory that problems of Russia’s TransBaikal Territory must be solved through the development of its economy, and the farming sector in particular. “Obviously, there is only one solution to many problems – it is to enhance economic growth of the territory,” Putin stressed. “It is necessary to enhance the efficiency of economic solutions, to make proper use of the resources of the target-oriented programs, to coordinate the activities of federal and regional authorities more efficiently.”