{"id":183862,"date":"2025-09-26T21:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T21:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/183862\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T21:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T21:56:07","slug":"california-remains-worlds-fourth-largest-economy-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/183862\/","title":{"rendered":"California remains world\u2019s fourth-largest economy \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

California kept its bragging rights as the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy in the latest update on state-level business output.<\/p>\n

The Golden State economy was producing goods and services at a nation-leading $4.215 trillion annual pace in the second quarter. That\u2019s according to the latest estimates of gross domestic product by the Bureau of Economic Analysis released Friday, Sept. 26<\/a>.<\/p>\n

GDP is a broad measure of the production of goods and services, often seen as a yardstick of a region\u2019s economic vibrancy. California\u2019s economy was growing at a 4.3% annual rate at mid-year 2025.<\/p>\n

This geeky economic statistic has morphed into political brownie points for the state by comparing California\u2019s business output to the latest global GDP rankings from the International Monetary Fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The latest IMF report from April ranked the U.S. as the GDP leader, with an estimated output of $30.5 trillion for 2025. Next was China at $19.2 trillion and Germany at $4.7 trillion.<\/p>\n

Theoretically speaking, if California were viewed as a nation, its economy ranks No. 4 on this vanity totem pole \u2013 just ahead of India ($4.187 trillion) and Japan ($4.186 trillion). Yes, there\u2019s only a $29 billion gap among the three economies.<\/p>\n

The next major twist in this GDP drama will be the release this autumn of fresh IMF numbers. The update could reshuffle California\u2019s global standing.<\/p>\n

Output jam<\/p>\n

It seems likely that India\u2019s rapidly growing economy<\/a> will eventually break the logjam with California and Japan. But will it happen in 2025?<\/p>\n

The global economy typically experiences ebbs and flows, but the uncertainty of 2025 stands out. The White House\u2019s rewriting of international trade policies is a huge wild card.<\/p>\n

Major swings in U.S. tariffs on imports introduced significant uncertainty into global economic performance. That makes forecasting output problematic..<\/p>\n

The Indian economy is booming, with 7.8% annualized GDP growth in the second quarter. But remember that these global scorecards are graded in U.S. dollars. And India\u2019s rupee had lost 4% of its value to the American dollar so far in 2025. That dip may hurt its international grade.<\/p>\n

Why are experts and currency traders anxious about India? U.S. trade policies will dent the country\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

U.S. tariffs of up to 50% slow what India sells to American consumers. Additionally, the White House recently imposed various limits on U.S. firms using foreign workers, and India is a hot spot for technology workers.<\/p>\n

In Japan, its economy was growing at a 2.2% annual pace at mid-year 2025. Its economy has been in a long funk tied to an aging and stagnant population. U.S. tariffs also add to their headaches.<\/p>\n

But for the GDP scorecards, Japan\u2019s 2025 ranking should be helped by a stronger currency. The yen has appreciated 5% vs. the U.S. dollar in 2025.<\/p>\n

Domestically speaking<\/p>\n

California is performing well compared to its domestic peers \u2013 and the nation as a whole.<\/p>\n

My trusty spreadsheet\u2019s review of state-by-state GDP results shows that California\u2019s 4.3% GDP growth after inflation for the second quarter ranked 12th best among the states. The Golden State also topped the nation\u2019s 3.8% GDP expansion rate.<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s top performers were North Dakota at 7.3%, Texas at 6.8%, Kansas at 6.7%, New Mexico at 5.7% and Wyoming at 5.3%. Two state economies shrank: Arkansas, off 1.1%, and Mississippi, off 0.9%.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a vast improvement over the first quarter when California\u2019s GDP was flat. However, that shaky performance still ranked 16th best, as the nation\u2019s business output fell at a 0.6% annual rate. In early 2025, the economy was adapting to the new administration\u2019s unorthodox business approach.<\/p>\n

California had economic momentum coming into the year. For all of 2024, California ranked 12th in GDP growth, at 2.9%, surpassing the nation\u2019s 2.4% expansion.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally Published: September 26, 2025 at 9:05 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California kept its bragging rights as the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy in the latest update on state-level business output.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,2356,4887,22941,101,15207,2053,3,111,452],"class_list":["post-183862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-economy","tag-growth","tag-housing","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}