Gross National Product (GNP): $9781bn

Exchange rates against the US$ over the last year: Currency is US dollar

SCORE CARD

World GNP ranking: 1st GNP per capita: $34,280 Balance of payments: –$481bn Inflation: 1.6% Unemployment: 6%

Strengths

World's largest economy. Wealth of natural resources: energy, raw materials, and food. Strong high-tech base; world-leading research and development. Global leader in computer software. World-class multinationals. Sophisticated service sector; advanced and competitive manufacturing industry. Entrepreneurial business ethic. High-quality postgraduate education, especially in high-tech business. Global dominance of US culture major boost to US manufacturers. Subsidized crops and favorable tariffs for domestic industries.

Weaknesses

Dramatic fall in manufacturing employment as jobs lost to lower-wage economies. Competition from Asia and EU in leading-edge technologies. Volatile market values driven by speculation. Accusations of short-termism. Recent major corporate collapses. Increase in imports despite relatively weak dollar: competition from euro as global currency. Major budget deficit.

Profile

In 2001 a record nine-year boom came to an end. The downturn greatly affected big business. The collapse of WorldCom in 2002, the largest ever bankruptcy, threatened confidence in business values, while media-giant AOL Time Warner posted historic losses of $98.7 billion for 2002. Unemployment has increased as companies tighten their budgets, passing a nine-year high of 6.4% in June 2003.

Recovery efforts have focused on promoting consumer spending, and President Bush has pushed for a $2000 billion package of tax cuts – though, in the event, the cuts were greatly watered down by Congress. Interest rates have been systematically cut and reached just 1% in June 2003, a 45-year low. However, government spending has increased, notably on defense: the war on Iraq in 2003 cost $48 billion. The budget and trade accounts have both fallen into record deficits.

EXPORTS

IMPORTS

ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

From "The Financial Times World Desk Reference" © Dorling Kindersley 2004