Macau tops in economic performance

WASHINGTON: Macau, the Chinese territory known for casino gambling, outperformed the rest of the world’s major cities economically last year, according to a report out Thursday.

Cities in the developing world, especially China, dominated the top of the annual economic rankings of 300 cities worldwide by the Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase. One exception: Bangkok, Thailand, came in last, its economy wrecked by political strife.

Cities in wealthy, developed countries tended to lag behind. Though most of the cities surveyed around the world have recovered from the Great Recession, 65 per cent of European and 57pc of North American cities have not, according to the study, which ranks cities by growth in employment and in economic output per person.

BIG DIFFERENCES: Joseph Parilla, a Brookings research analyst who co-wrote the report, said he was surprised by the “incredible differentiation within what are considered monolithic economic blocs.”

Latin American cities, for instance, mostly sputtered. But Medellin, Colombia, and Lima, Peru, both broke into the top 50.

Cities in wealthy countries tended to perform poorly. But US and British cities showed improvement. Three US cities — Austin and Houston, Texas, and Raleigh, North Carolina — cracked the top 50.

In the United Kingdom, London came in no. 26, Manchester no. 60.

The United States and Britain have begun to pick up economic momentum five years after the recession ended.

“In developed economies like North America and Western Europe, cities like London and Houston are flying high, while others like Rotterdam and Montreal are struggling,” Parilla said.

INSIDE CHINA: 27 of the 50 top-performing cities were Chinese. Increasingly, strong growth occurred in the traditionally underdeveloped cities of China’s interior, rather than its booming coastal cities.

Land-locked Changsha, for instance, enjoyed economic growth per person of 8.6pc last year and wound up no. 15 in the overall rankings.

The coastal manufacturing powerhouse of Dongguan, next door to Hong Kong, registered per-capita economic growth of just 5.2pc (unimpressive by Chinese standards) and finished no. 70.

Companies have begun to move inland as the cost of labour and land rises on the Chinese coast. And the Chinese government has invested heavily on infrastructure in the interior.

COMMODITIES BOOM: The 18 cities worldwide that specialised in producing commodities such as oil registered the highest rates of growth in economic output per person (2.6pc) and employment (1.9pc).