This country has ranked 49th—higher than 142 other well-known countries globally—in terms of standard of living. That is, in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) per capita.
This is indicated in a Global Finance article from the International Monetary Fund (World Economic Outlook) on the World’s Richest Countries 2019.
The article stated that the wealthiest nations are among the tiniest globally. The rankings which were calculated on values are expressed in current international dollars, to the nearest whole dollar, reflecting a single year’s (2018) currency exchange rates and PPP adjustments.
The article examined how a country is seen as rich, “Especially in an era of growing income inequality between the rich and everyone else. While gross domestic product (GDP) measures the value of all goods and services produced in a nation, dividing a country’s GDP by the number of the full-time residents is a better way of determining how rich or poor one country’s population is relative to another’s.”
According to the article, “The reason why ‘rich’ often equals ‘small’ then becomes clear: these countries’ economies are disproportionately large compared to their comparatively small populations.”
“However, only when taking into account inflation rates and the cost of local goods and services can we get a more accurate picture of a nation’s average standard of living: the resulting figure is what is called purchasing power parity (PPP), which is often expressed international dollars in order to allow comparisons between different countries,” the article stated
In the list, TT ranked 49th, beating out China, India, Pakistan, nearly all African states, several European countries—including Greece—and most Caribbean countries: Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, St Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada Dominica, Haiti.
Regionally, only the Bahamas was above T&T along with developed nations including the US, UK France, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Israel and others.
T&T also topped Russia, several Asian and Middle East countries including Lebanon, Mexico and South American states including Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Colombia, Suriname Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Guyana, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras.
