Laos GDP (official exchange rate)

GDP (official exchange rate): $16.97 billion (2017 est.)

Definition: This entry gives the gross domestic product (GDP) or value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year. A nation's GDP at official exchange rates (OER) is the home-currency-denominated annual GDP figure divided by the bilateral average US exchange rate with that country in that year. The measure is simple to compute and gives a precise measure of the value of output. Many economists prefer this measure when gauging the economic power an economy maintains vis-à-vis its neighbors, judging that an exchange rate captures the purchasing power a nation enjoys in the international marketplace. Official exchange rates, however, can be artificially fixed and/or subject to manipulation - resulting in claims of the country having an under- or over-valued currency - and are not necessarily the equivalent of a market-determined exchange rate. Moreover, even if the official exchange rate is market-determined, market exchange rates are frequently established by a relatively small set of goods and services (the ones the country trades) and may not capture the value of the larger set of goods the country produces. Furthermore, OER-converted GDP is not well suited to comparing domestic GDP over time, since appreciation/depreciation from one year to the next will make the OER GDP value rise/fall regardless of whether home-currency-denominated GDP changed.

Source: CIA World Factbook - This page was last updated on Saturday, September 18, 2021

• GDP (current US$) - thematic map - World Bank indicator
• GDP (current US$) - country comparison - World Bank indicator
• GDP (purchasing power parity)
• GDP - real growth rate
• GDP - per capita (PPP)
• GDP - composition by sector

Related Data From the International Monetary Fund