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Study of Greater Washington’s Global Economy Benchmarks Region Against International Metro Areas, Highlights Trends Since 2000

April 12, 2006 - Washington, DC – At a meeting at the International Monetary Fund today, the Greater Washington Initiative (GWI) released a new study, “Greater Washington: International Commerce and Culture,” that highlights changes since GWI completed a similar study in 2000, and benchmarks the combined Greater Washington-Baltimore region to 11 major metro areas in Europe, Asia, South and North America.

Conducted in late 2005 and early 2006, with input from local private, public and academic leaders, the study includes an analysis of 700 internationally owned companies in the region and a sample of 144 local firms with international operations.

“This study confirms that Greater Washington is highly competitive when compared to other world markets, and has an increasingly diverse, vibrant international business community. While this sector did not expand significantly over the challenging past five years, it has kept pace with our fast-growing regional economy,” said GWI Chair William Couper, who is president, Mid-Atlantic, Bank of America.

The study reveals the following:

The region’s economy and business environment is among the world’s strongest. The combined Greater Washington-Baltimore area’s Gross Regional Product ($246.8 billion), out-produces regionswith much larger populations. Among the 11 other benchmark international cities, only Tokyo, with 4 times as many people, has a higher GRP ($335.1 billion). Greater Washington-Baltimore also has a significantly lower cost of living than other global metro areas, ranking 78th on a 2005 Cost of Living Index.

Compared to a previous study conducted in 2000, the total economic impact of international commerce in Greater Washington was $41.4 billion, remaining approximately the same proportion of the regional economy (13%) in 2005 as it was in 2000.

In 2005, the region’s international sector employed about 280,000, a significant decline since 2000. This decline can be attributed in part to a number of large telecom firms that that have scaled back operations in Greater Washington and a general economic downtown in many European markets.

Another significant change since the 2000 study includes a growing number of local companies doingbusiness in China and India. Among the 144 companies sampled, 23% now have operations in China and India. The study also identified 700 internationally owned companies in the region – up 9% from 2000 – with overseas headquarters in 39 countries.

Area colleges and universities hosted about 19,000 internationalstudents in 2005, down slightly from 20,000 in 2000. Spending per student averages $35,000 per year, about the same as in 2000.

The complete study, an executive summary, as well as other statistics and economic trends about Greater Washington, are available at GWI’s web site, www.greaterwashington.org.

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The Greater Washington Initiative ( GWI) is the regional economic development marketing organization that assists firms in expanding their businesses in the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia and Suburban Maryland. GWI provides complimentary and confidential client services and research and is an affiliate of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. For more info, visit www.greaterwashington.org

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