新奇事件簿 尼日利亚成为非洲第一大经济体
Nigeria has changed the way it measures its gross domestic product (GDP) and has announced it is now Africa's largest economy. It is the first time the continent's most populous nation has claimed the top spot. Nigeria "rebased" its gross domestic product data to incorporate newer industries that were not accounted for under the old GDP measuring rules. The inclusion of sectors such as telecommunications, information technology, movie production and online commerce has pushed the country above the traditional economic powerhouse, South Africa. Nigeria's statisticians say GDP for 2013 totalled $510 billion, considerably bigger than South Africa's GDP of $370 billion.
尼日利亚改变了衡量国内生产总值的方法，并声称自己是非洲最大的经济体。尼日利亚是非洲人口最多的国家，这也是尼日利亚第一次宣称自己第一的位置。尼日利亚把新兴产业算入到了生产总值当中，之前的老式衡量方法并不把它包含在内。这些包含的领域有：电子通信、信息技术、电影制作以及电子商务，这些产业让尼日利亚超越了南非这一传统经济体。尼日利亚的数据学家认为2013年，尼日利亚的国内生产总值是5100万亿美金，多于南非的3700万亿美金。
Rebasing of GDP is what most countries do every three years to account for the economic contributions of new and emerging industries. Nigeria hadn't rebased its economy in two decades. In this time, many new industries have blossomed. Nigeria's chief statistician Dr Yemi Kale said the new figures do not mean Nigerians are suddenly richer. He explained: "It's just about measuring better and more accurately. It does not mean that within 24 hours, something miraculous has happened." Nigeria's Tribune newspaper wrote: "Although pockets of vast wealth exist, most of Nigeria's estimated 170 million people still live on $2 a day, whilekey services such as water and electricity provision are poor."
对于绝大多数国家，他们都会在每三年加入一些新的新兴产业。尼日利亚在过去的20年中都没有进行这一举措。这回，许多新兴产业已经得到了蓬勃发展。尼日利亚的数据统计局局长耶米·卡勒认为新数据并不能表明尼日利亚一夜暴富。他解释道：“这一举措只是想让测量变得更加准确，更加完善。这不意味着在24小时内将会发生奇迹。”尼日利亚的论坛报写道：“尽管我们的国家非常富有，但是在尼日利亚，有1亿7000万人每天的工资还是2美金，水以及电子领域等关键性领域还非常淡薄。
