>For you economisty types out there: In 2000, Russia's current account
>surplus relative to GDP was $46 billion, or 18.5%. How big is this?
Enormous.
Except that the c/a is measured in US$ and GDP in rubles, right? How does the market exchange rate for rubles compare with a purchasing power parity rate? The World Bank has Russian GDP per cap at $7,473 PPP and $2,051 market. The market rate is close to Peru's? But the PPP rate is almost twice Peru's. Which is closer to reality? If you marked up GDP to the PPP rate, the c/a would come down to the 5% range, which is big, but not enormous.
Doug