California's economy grows larger than UK's, reaching world's 5th largest: Report

The California state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo by LA Times)

The economy of the West Coast US state of California has grown in the past two years to become the world’s fifth largest, even surpassing the British gross domestic product (GDP), new federal data indicates.

While California’s GDP exceeded $2.7 billion dollars after it grew $127 billion between 2016 and 2017, Britain’s GDP contracted when measured in US dollars, mostly due to exchange rate variations, AP reported Friday, citing US federal data released earlier in the day.

The newly-released data, the report adds, further highlights the potency of the state’s huge population as well as the influence of its growing Silicon Valley technology sector, Hollywood's entertainment industry and the Central Valley's agricultural output.

It also cited the California Finance Department’s Chief Economist Irena Asmundson as stating that each of the state’s economic sectors -- with the exception of agriculture -- contributed to the state’s higher GDP.

The state’s financial services and real estate grew by $26 billion as its information sector climbed by $20 billion and manufacturing showed an increase of $10 billion.

The new official data, according to the report, further underscores California's economic rebound following the Great Recession, after which the state’s economy fell as far as 10th place in 2012 GDP rankings.

Since then, California's GDP has increased by $700 billion and added 2 million jobs.

The coastal state, which houses 12 percent of the entire US population, contributed to 16 percent of all domestic job growth between 2012 and 2017, the report underlined, noting that its share of the US economy also grew from 12.8 percent to 14.2 percent during that period.

The US, China, Japan and Germany are currently the only nations across the globe with economies bigger than California’s, the report points out.