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That was maybe 10-20 years ago. Hong Kong is experiencing another massive exodus.
This is the website which extracts info from the Hong Kong immigration department’s stats regarding flow of people at various entry points since January 2020 (onset of the pandemic) https://webb-site.com/dbpub/hkpax.asp?t=0&p=0&f=3
You are right that there has been exodus or net outflow of people since July 2020 (the passage of the NSL).
But there is little attention to the fact there was greater net influx of people (545,926) from Jan to Jun 2020!
In short, Hong Kong still has a net inflow of 260,000 people to the city since the onset of the pandemic up to the present day.
Now here is the question of thought: are those people who came back or returned to HK mostly CCP loving mainland immigrants while those depart the city are traditional Hongkongers who prefer western style? That may very well be the case, but there is no concrete data for further analysis.
I would say Italy / Spain / Portugal are still solidly in the Advanced Economies column
Whereas Greece has fallen to Emerging market status
You can refer to MSCI Index’s classification
Funny how the so-called West operates. Before the Syrian bombing and destruction by the West Greece was always called the so-called Western Europe. As soon as Greece lost some of its GDP (but not the infrastructure or culture) the so-called West started listing Greece under Eastern Europe. Go figure. Hypocrisy at its best.
I like Portugal too. I've been there and thought it was beautiful and lovely. Third world is a bit harsh, maybe 1.5 world.
If one lives in Portugal full time and long enough, for say 10 years, especially if you own a house, a property and do a business there, one will soon realize that Portugal is a typical second world country. Many things don't work, or are borderline being established and keep on failing and many or rather most workers and contractors do not want to work at all, while judicial system, postal service, speed courier services and even banks are not at par with the developing world and will probably never be, because of the mentality and the "relaxed" business culture. Yet the Portuguese have a great sense of pride when designing their own homes. So if you live for long enough in Portugal, you will learn how difficult to achieve and do things over there and how a foreigner expat can be discriminated or even praised there. Praising of expats is a form of discrimination too. You would be unfairly well treated by part of the population while frowned upon by the rest. By the way things are run and the mentality Portugal is nowhere close to the so-called First World. And I must admit the United States has fallen to the same league lately, quite very much, despite still faking their high GDP figures.
Last edited by newtocolumbia; 03-23-2022 at 05:54 AM..
Apart from a couple of East European countries, the vast majority of Europe is first world.
In terms of Poland it has seen some of the most impressive economic growth in Europe since the end of the Cold War, and is one of the wealthiest so called East European nations.
Italy also has a strong manufacturing base, and is a financial centre, whilst Spain, Portugal and Greece are all first world countries, although they are still recovering from a period of economic stability caused by the Euro crisis. It should however be noted that all these countries have beautiful geography, Mediterranean coastlines and pleasant climate, and they attract a lot of tourism including the very wealthy.
Yeah IMF is probably the best overall categorisation, though amongst the IMF advanced economies there should be different levels.
Top tier developed countries would be DACH, Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, the US. These countries have perfect or almost perfect credit ratings, competitive industries, strong purchasing power, and generally offer the highest quality of life. Switzerland, Norway and Denmark in particular are the strongest performers.
Mid tier developed countries would be British isles, Belgium, France, Israel, Japan, Singapore, and New Zealand. These countries usually fall short in one or a few aspects like high debt, larger urban/rural gap, weaker purchasing power, or more inequality, but are still highly competitive and offer very high quality of life.
Bottom tier developed countries are Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Spain, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Czech Republic, and Estonia. These are either younger developed countries so many things are still quite **** (Korea, Taiwan) or simply have been doing awful for a couple of decades economically (Italy and Spain), but overall things are ... passable, I guess, compared to developing countries. I guess Korea and Taiwan are somewhat closer to mid-tier as these two economies are a lot more competitive than Southern and Eastern Europe and the credit ratings/public debt levels are both in good shape.
Borderline developing countries are Portugal, Greece, Slovakia, Latvia, and Lithuania. They either are just not quite there yet or the mighty simply has fallen (for Greece).
Estonia may look like a somehow developed country (in the center of its capital city) since it is consisting of basically one city - Tallinn. Yet Lithuania, because it has an almost equal spread of equally developed smaller cities throughout its territory may look a bit lesser developed, especially with some gravel roads in the countryside (just like South Carolina) because the development is spread across the entire country and its motorway infrastructure is superb to Estonia even since 1960s. Both are nowhere close to a fully developed status, which is a shame, because the European Union should be a Union of fully developed countries. Let alone Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. While Greece has never been fully developed. Regarding Romania or Bulgaria, why are they even in the EU? I would say this also about Poland and Italy and even Spain, - not fully developed, or just barely. In fact South Africa seems to be better developed than those. So, yes, development is not what you see outside, such as infrastructure, but also services and even the mentality.
Apart from a couple of East European countries, the vast majority of Europe is first world.
In terms of Poland it has seen some of the most impressive economic growth in Europe since the end of the Cold War, and is one of the wealthiest so called East European nations.
Italy also has a strong manufacturing base, and is a financial centre, whilst Spain, Portugal and Greece are all first world countries, although they are still recovering from a period of economic stability caused by the Euro crisis. It should however be noted that all these countries have beautiful geography, Mediterranean coastlines and pleasant climate, and they attract a lot of tourism including the very wealthy.
According to the IMF, 156 economies (out of 196) are classified as emerging / developing economies. I will rank the following 20 emerging / developing economies as being the closest or having the greatest potential to graduating as an Advanced Economy!
01. Qatar [Middle-East] (very high GDP per capita, just needs to diversify its economic sectors!)
02. United Arab Emirates [Middle-East] (same as above)
03. Brunei [Southeast Asia] (same as above)
04. Kuwait [Middle-East] (same as above)
05. Saudi Arabia [Middle-East] (same as above)
06. Bahrain [Middle-East] (same as above)
07. Oman [Middle-East] (same as above)
08. Poland [Eastern Europe] (EU member)
09. Hungary [Eastern Europe] (EU member)
10. Libya [Africa] (struggled quite a bit in the past decade but is still on track!)
11. Aruba [Caribbean]
12. Bahamas [Caribbean]
13. Equatorial Guinea [Africa] (one of the only 2 African countries on the list!)
14. Guyana [South America]
15. Romania [Eastern Europe] (EU member)
16. Turkey [Eastern Europe]
17. Croatia [Eastern Europe] (once it adopts Euro next year, will likely become an advanced economy)
18. Panama [Central America] (getting quite rich recently after becoming an offshore financial centre)
19. Russia [Eastern Europe] (well that was the case before the invasion, will see how it goes)
20. Trinidad and Tobago [Caribbean]
Honourable mentions for Malaysia, Seychelles, Kazakhstan, Maldives and Bulgaria!
Let me correct you: Poland and Hungary are in the Central Europe. They will scalp you for calling them Eastern European. Libya is North Africa. Romania and Coatia are Southeastern Europe, while Croatia is even South-Central, especially the Slovenia.Turkey despite having conquered parts of Europe is not a European country and is a country in Western Asia and the Middle East, with their culture and language deeply and proudly engrained in the beautiful Central Asia. And finally Russia - not Eastern Europe, but rather a Northern Eurasian country since you don't want to take the Urals, the Siberia and the Far East from Russia or they will invade you for that reason. Just my 95c (inflation).
Last edited by newtocolumbia; 03-23-2022 at 05:58 AM..
Let me correct you: Poland and Hungary are in the Central Europe. They will scalp you for calling them Eastern European. Libya is North Africa. Romania and Coatia are Southeastern Europe, while Croatia is even South-Central, especially the Slovenia.Turkey despite having conquered parts of Europe is not a European country and is a country in Western Asia and the Middle East, with their culture and language deeply and proudly engrained in the beautiful Central Asia. And finally Russia - not Eastern Europe, but rather Eurasian country since you don't want to take the Urals, the Siberia and the Far East from Russia or they will invade you for that reason. Just my 95c (inflation).
In terms of whether Poland is Eastern or Central depends on what European map you use and what generation you belong to, as Poland was always behind the Eastern Iron Curtain and part of the Warsaw Pact.
However more modern maps now divide Europe in to different regions than the old Cold War maps and Eastern Europe now consists of Western Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
I should add that the Cold War was before my time, however even I sometimes use the term East for Poland.
I see where you are coming from, but I think a more apt statement would have been to say that the US is a first world country and not single out specific territories that arguably aren't on their own. PR being a part of US is what makes it first world. Not PR existing as its own entity. From my view, PR should not have been listed separately.
Having lived in Puerto Rico I must say it is not even First World, not at all. Not the infrastructure and the potholed motorways and streets with huge pit holes, neither the mentality nor anything else. It's been forced into the US by a vote of the part of their population and has not become a developed country ever since. Is paying $500 for your el. bill and paying $10 for a cup of yoghurt make it First World? It is because all their food and goods must go via New York and not directly to the island of PR, which makes them a poor nation somehow associated with the US. And the US has a lot of underdeveloped places, which does not make US a fully developed country either. The harsh reality is that a lot of Earth is still under development (destruction) by the human kind.
Last edited by newtocolumbia; 03-23-2022 at 06:00 AM..
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