Quiz: Which country had the highest rate of economic growth in 2009?

Quiz: Which country had the highest rate of economic growth in 2009?

PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images
PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images
PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images

For those of you who don't subscribe to the bimonthly print edition of Foreign Policy, you're missing a great feature: the FP Quiz. It has eight intriguing questions about how the world works.

For those of you who don’t subscribe to the bimonthly print edition of Foreign Policy, you’re missing a great feature: the FP Quiz. It has eight intriguing questions about how the world works.

The question I’d like to highlight this week is:

Which country had the highest rate of economic growth in 2009?

a) Afghanistan    b) China    c) Qatar

Answer after the jump …

Answer:

A, Afghanistan. The insurgent-overrun country may have a per capita GDP of only $461 and an unemployment rate of 40 percent, but its economy was booming last year at an estimated rate of 15.7 percent, according to the IMF. Much of that growth was due to internationally backed reconstruction programs, as well as private construction and services, such as the $1.5 billion invested in telecom since 2003. Meanwhile the economy of oil-rich Qatar, the second fastest-growing, expanded 11.5 percent, and No. 3 China increased its GDP 8.5 percent.

And for more questions about how the world works, check out the rest of the FP Quiz

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2016 and was an FP assistant editor from 2007 to 2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

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