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Cross Country Co-Movements Of Gdp Growth Rates: Are They Systematic?, Abbas Valadkhani, Charles Harvie

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Using factor analysis this paper examines discernable patterns of real GDP growth comovementsacross 97 countries, using consistent time series data for the period 1961-2008.Of these countries only 21 are found to form three statistically significant groupings, wheremembership count exceeds more than two. Ten major OECD European countries plus Japanand Hong Kong form the first well-defined common bloc of countries (G12). The second bloc,consisting of six major Asian countries (G6), have GDP growth rates that exhibit a very highdegree of correlation, based on their robust factor loadings. The last group of countiescollectively witnessed a very substantial degree of cross-country growth co-movementsconstituted …