Applying the Rule of 70, which states that the number of years it takes for the level of any variable to double is approximately 70 divided by the annual percentage growth rate of the variable (CFA, 2009), to answer the question: "how long would it take Vietnam's real GDP per person to reach that of America in 2008?"
Assuming that Vietnam will continue to grow at speed of 7%, with 2008 GDP per capita of Vietnam is 16 times less than that of the US. According to rule of 70, Vietnam's GDP per person doubles in 10 years (70 divided by 7); it doubles again to 4 times its current level in another 10 years, again to 8 times in another 10 years, and again to 16 times. So after 40 years of growth at 7% a year, Vietnam's real GDP per person is 16 times its current level and equals that of America (CFA, 2009)
From: Snippets.com
IT HAS been deep and nasty. But the worst global recession since the 1930s may be over. Led by China, Asia’s emerging economies have revived fastest, with several expanding at annualised rates of more than 10% in the second quarter. A few big rich economies also returned to growth, albeit far more modestly, between April and June. Japan’s output rose at an annualised pace of 3.7%, and both Germany and France notched up annualised growth rates of just over 1%. In America the housing market has shown signs of stabilising, the pace of job losses is slowing and the vast majority of forecasters expect output to expand between July and September. Most economies are still a lot smaller than they were a year ago. On a quarterly basis, though, they are turning the corner.
