California poised to overtake Germany as the world’s #4 economy
Yahoo Finance's Akiko Fujita discusses the chart of the day on California's GDP growth.
Video Transcript
AKIKO FUJITA: Well, it is now time for our chart of the day. And today, we are honing on the West Coast, as I like to call it the Best Coast. The state of California poised to overtake Germany as the world's number four economy, moving up the ranks, just behind the US, China, and Japan, with recent data implying California's already $72 billion ahead of Germany when you account for the state's recent growth rate.
Now, this chart we're watching from Bloomberg points to the diverging paths Europe's largest economy and the largest economy in the US have taken. California has 379 companies with a market value of at least $1 billion. Germany has just 155. When you look at the top 10 firms in each region, California companies, including Alphabet and Apple-- yes, a lot of those tech names-- have outperformed the German ones on every metric.
On the macro front, California's economy is also ahead of Germany's, with its unemployment rate at 3.9% compared to Germany's at 5.3%. We should point out, by the way, California also-- the unemployment rate there coming down from Texas, which is, of course, the second largest economy in the US. It's the first time that's happened since 2006.
