Both the IEA and the World Energy Council analyses illustrate how widely the performance of countries differs.
The other notable trend is the depressing performance of countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
That raises hopes that Germany and some other countries will grow strongly enough to help compensate for the abysmal economic performance of countries like Greece and Italy.
The inflexibility of fixed exchange rates of the euro is inherently problematic when the economic performance of countries continues to differ.
The Social Progress index is an effort to measure and compare the performance of countries in terms of the real things that matter to real people, not just income alone.
The index covers the performance of countries across five areas – the level of emissions, the trends in emissions, energy efficiency, renewable energy policies and the approach to climate change at national and international levels.
That is a shocking number, far worse than the performance of countries like Canada or the Dominican Republic whose economies have similarly close links to the United States.Yet in other ways too, this recession is very different from 1995 (see chart).
In a study published last year, Andrew G. Berg and Jonathan D. Ostry, of the International Monetary Fund, analyzed the long-term economic performance of countries, then fired a broadside at Mr. Okun's conclusions, saying those with more even divisions of the spoils often grew faster.
GDP, the sum total of consumption, investment, government spending and exports in any country, has been the main way to compare the relative performance of countries.
Scotland does not have its own ranking, but the survey compares the performance of countries which are part of larger states.
