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For simplicity sake: Please can you explain to me what does this mean...."trade increases globally by 10%"?

assuming Country A = 100 assuming Country B = 100 

does it mean....

1) 10% for each country so new trade means

 Country A = 110  Country B = 110 

or does it mean...

2) 5% for country A and 5% for country B, so new trade is

 Country A =  105  Country B =  105    

Thank you for your time and effort in helping me with this question

2 Answers 2

1

It pretty much has to mean for each country. Otherwise, you get a different answer if you consider China and Taiwan two countries than you do if you consider them one country. And that wouldn't make any sense at all.

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    Thanks everyone, I am closing this off.2011-11-17
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It does not mean (2). It might mean (1), or it might mean simply that the total sales revenue for all countries combined rises by $10$%. In your example this could mean that Country A stays at $100$ while Country B rises to $120$. It could even mean that Country A drops to $90$ while Country B rises to $130$. Any combination of changes resulting in a total of $220$, $10$% more than the initial $200$, would count as a global increase of $10$% under this interpretation. In this case there can be variation from one country to another, but the overall sales revenue goes up by $10$%.

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    @DavidSchwartz I think that is a fair description. In the end, I think it is poorly phrased and could be reworded to be clearer.2011-11-16