Economic dynamism is the ability to quickly bring the GDP level back to the potential GDP level after a recession

It is pointless to compare countries’ forecast growth rates in 2021-2022, after the COVID crisis, to find out which countries have the most dynamic economies, since these growth rates in themselves mean nothing. The right measure of an economy’s dynamism is the time it takes to bring the level of GDP back to the potential GDP level (the GDP that would have been achieved without a recession) after a recession. We do this for the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and China. We then see that “real” economic dynamism is: Strong in the United States and Italy; Intermediary in the United Kingdom, France and Spain; Weak in Germany, Japan and China.