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Why has Greece been officially classified as a developed country and [Greek] Cyprus as a developing country, despite Cyprus having a higher per capita income than Greece? Because Cyprus is much smaller, or because Greece but not Cyprus has been a charter member of NATO? Or is it a matter of classifying Greek and Turkish Cyprus together, with Turkish Cyprus being much poorer than Greece or Greek Cyprus? Or is it one of those "accidents of history", in which Cyprus was colonized by the Venetians and then the British, whereas Greece became independent in the 1820s after being controlled for a few centuries by the Ottomans?
In addition, Israel (just like Cyprus) has had a substantial Arab/Islamic as well as Jewish population, and Israel/Palestine was a British mandate and, before that, a part of the Ottoman Empire. Plus, Israel was not too long ago (4-5 decades ago and more) a poor(er) country, and Cyprus and Israel have similar per capita incomes (though Israel's is slightly higher). And yet Israel has been officially classified as a developed country since the 1980s or even before, while Cyprus has been officially a developing country at least until 10-20 years ago. Why the difference there?
It would really help if you could give a source for that classification. The World Bank says Cyprus is a high-income economy, the IMF says it's an advanced economy, it is in the 'very high development' group in HDI...
Because in a map from the Canadian International Development Agency from the early 1990s that I have, Greece and Israel are labelled "developed" while Cyprus is labelled "developing".
Because in a map from the Canadian International Development Agency from the early 1990s that I have, Greece and Israel are labelled "developed" while Cyprus is labelled "developing".
Don't use 20 year old data from an agency that doesn't exist anymore. During that time Cyprus was not even part of the European Community/EU. A lot has changed since then.
I just quickly glanced on the current HDI list and Cyprus is listed as a 32nd most developed country, with Greece ranked 29th and Israel 18th.
Don't use 20 year old data from an agency that doesn't exist anymore. During that time Cyprus was not even part of the European Community/EU. A lot has changed since then.
I just quickly glanced on the current HDI list and Cyprus is listed as a 32nd most developed country, with Greece ranked 29th and Israel 18th.
First of all, it's 26-year-old data (looked up the map just now).
I'm now thinking that in answering my own question, perhaps a key difference between Greece and Israel, on the one hand, and Cyprus on the other hand, is that Cyprus was a member of the non-aligned movement whereas Greece and Israel weren't. Although that does bring up another issue, because both Cyprus and Malta were members of the non-aligned movement until they joined the EU in 2004, and yet in the 1990 map, Malta was marked as "developed" but Cyprus as "developing".
I'm also thinking that another difference is that Cyprus was recovering from a more recent event that just absolutely devastated the country's economy (the 1960s-early 1970s civil war followed by the 1974 invasion by Turkey prompting the partitioning of the island into Greek and Turkish sectors, with their attendant refugee flows), whereas the Greek civil war and the Israeli war of independence were in the late 1940s. (Israel did have the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, but I don't think that either was as devastating to the Israeli economy as the events in Cyprus culminating in 1974 were to the Cypriot one.)
Because in a map from the Canadian International Development Agency from the early 1990s that I have, Greece and Israel are labelled "developed" while Cyprus is labelled "developing".
...I hope this is a joke. Freakin' Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Poland are developed economies while Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan are developing?
...I hope this is a joke. Freakin' Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Poland are developed economies while Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan are developing?
hahahaaa.
Singapore's per capital GDP (PPP) is higher than every European country other than the micro-state Luxembourg, more than twice that of France or the UK and it is a developing economy.... on the other hand Bulgaria hardly beats Mexico and Azerbaijan and qualifies as developed.
If Singapore is a developing economy, than I guess the British are pre-industrial?
Whoever developed this ranking must be a European who knows nothing about the rest of the world
And it lists Taiwan as "Taiwan province of China" if you pay attention.
I have to check the date as it shows 2014, but it feels like to be from 1984.
...I hope this is a joke. Freakin' Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Poland are developed economies while Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan are developing?
I followed the link and that is not what it says.
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