Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a key economic variable that companies use to help decide whether to do business in a foreign country.  GDP is a measure of the size of a country’s economy in terms of its production output from one period to another. Much has been written lately about the GDP decline in Brazil and the slowdown in China.  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October 2015 revised its forecast for 2016 versus 2015 in terms of GDP growth for countries.

The following table reveals the IMF’s latest GDP projections.  Millions of companies use this data to develop and adjust their strategies for doing business globally.  Even small differences or changes can impact billions of dollars of potential investment.  Note in the table that India has the highest projected GDP and Brazil has the lowest.  Note also that the IMF projects the world average GDP to increase to 3.6 percent on average in 2016.

Country                      2015 GDP Forecast (%)       2016 GDP Forecast (%)

USA                                         2.6                                           2.8

Brazil                                      -3.0                                          -1.0

Canada                                   1.0                                           1.7

Mexico                                    2.3                                           2.8

South Africa                           1.4                                           1.3

WORLD AVERAGE                3.1                                           3.6

Japan                                      0.6                                           1.0

India                                       7.3                                           7.5

China                                      6.8                                           6.3

Eurozone                               1.5                                           1.6

Source:  Based on:  Ian Talley, “IMF Sees Rising Risk of Global Slump,” Wall Street Journal, October 7, 2015, A8.