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 populous¹ 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 sectors² 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, considerably³ 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 accurately⁴. It does not mean that within 24 hours, something miraculous⁵ 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。

1 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。

2 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 considerably   

adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上

参考例句：

• The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
• The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。

4 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

5 miraculous   

adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的

参考例句：

• The wounded man made a miraculous recovery.伤员奇迹般地痊愈了。
• They won a miraculous victory over much stronger enemy.他们战胜了远比自己强大的敌人，赢得了非凡的胜利。