Purchasing Power Parities and the Size of World Economies Results from the 2021 International Comparison Program

The International Comparison Program (ICP) is a worldwide statistical initiative led by the World Bank under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission. Through a partnership of international, regional, sub-regional, and national agencies, the ICP collects price data and national accounts expenditures from over 170 economies to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs). Results from each cycle comprise comparable price, volume, and per capita measures of GDP and its expenditure aggregates across the world's economies. The report provides an analysis of the results of the ICP 2021 cycle covering the benchmark year 2021 and revised results for 2017. As a global public good, these results will allow policy makers and users to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy, and on prices, expenditures, output, and material well-being of each economy, and to apply these data in socioeconomic and development monitoring including the Sustainable Development Goals. The report also outlines the current PPP estimation methodology and discusses how the program’s stakeholders adapted to the extraordinary circumstances brought about by the pandemic.