Comparison of Pakistan and Philippines
When analyzing the gross domestic product (GDP) of Pakistan it becomes strikingly evident that there is another country which is very comparable to Pakistan based on its GDP; this nation, which appears to have a very similar economic orientation to Pakistan, is none other than the Philippines. The gross domestic product (GDP) of a country is the total market value of all the goods and services produced within an economy in a given year. Based on the 2007 statistics provided by the International Monetary Fund, the nominal GDP of Pakistan, calculated in millions of U.S. dollars, was 143,766; giving this country a world rank of 47th out of 179. The nominal GDP of the Philippines, in millions of U.S. dollars, was 144,129; positioning this nation as 46th out of 179. Based on these statistics, economists would most probably conclude that the Philippines and Pakistan are very similar, due to their economic homogeneousness. However, when utilizing other standards of measurement less rigid in their observations than GDP, it becomes unambiguous that the human development of the Philippines is at a much different and more advanced level than that of Pakistan. By analyzing the various U.N. indicators such as the Human Development Index (HDI), the Gender-related Development Index (GDI), the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), and the Human Poverty Index (HPI); the huge divergence, in terms of human development, between the Philippines and Pakistan is boldly manifested. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a U.N. indicator combining normalized measures of life expectancy, literacy, and GDP per capita for countries worldwide. The HDI is heralded as the standard means of measuring human development, a concept that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) refers to as the process of widening the options of persons, giving them greater opportunities for education, health care, income, employment, etc. With regards to the Human Development Index (HDI), the UNDP’s “2007-2008
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