% change on year ago | last 12 months $bn | ||||
Nation | GDP | Industrial Production | trade balance | foreign reserves | |
latest | 12 months ago | ||||
China | +9.6 Q2 | +12.1 | +29.4 Jun | 116.3 | 83.7 |
Indonesia | +7.8 (1996) | +7.1 Q4 | +8.3 May | 19.5 | 15.0 |
India | +7.0 (1995) | +9.8 Apr | -5.1 May | 24.5 | 17.4 |
Malaysia | +8.2 Q1 | +11.4 May | -1.0 Jun | 26.1 | 23.1 |
Taiwan | +6.8 Q1 | +5.3 Jun | +12.6 Jun | 88.8 | 82.6 |
Lester Brown , of America's influential Worldwatch Institute, predicted in 1995 that future increases in Chinese grain demand would be so steep that by 2030 neither China's own production or global surpluses would be sufficient to support the people of China. Famine and military power are the two main ingredients of war. Without sustainability of basic food requirements, conflict is a bi-product of all life-threatening disasters; we should not forget this maxim of all maxims.
According to last week's reports by the United Nation's World Food programme and other charities, possibly half of North Korea's children are malnourished and nearly everyone in the country is going without food. The UN went on to say that vast areas that once produced crops are now "parched to the colour and brittleness of a burnt potato chip". Hills have been stripped of trees and all greenery and paddy fields lie totally exhausted. Whilst the military government have the scourge of nuclear weapons their people have the impossible task of staying alive. The balance of power from military propensity to life saving theology has to be implemented. Science can only secure this needed change in global thinking and not politics or economic policies.
The minimum poverty line is taken as one dollar per day for basic survival. Zambia is a close second with 84.6% of its people living below the poverty line. Life expectancy in Guinea-Bissau and Zambia is 38 years and 46 years respectively. India is the worlds poorest nation when viewed in numbers as nearly 500 million of it's people live on less than the one dollar threshold.