Its nice to know about our own country. I will read bibas's article in his blog :) but just a quick comment on mickthesick's point no.2 You have mentioned physical capital. When it says 'physical', I would assume that money has already been invested in some physical assets.(?) With more machinery available per person, GDP is supposed to increase. But then again , when have our machinery been allowed to operate without disruption? I remember a big explosion in Colgate Palmolive or was it Nepal Lever? To address bibas's query about relevance of US GDP, it may not be a bad idea. After all, US GDP is a sign of consumer spending in US. The more US consumers spend, the more we can expect our garments to reach US ports (provided other factors like quota system havent changed and more preference have not been given to some African countries).