The GDP statistics I cited were nominal. The $2 a day thing was not. They don’t make $2 a day. The make enough to go as far as $2 would in the US.
Well, there is a caveat there. The PPP estimates that drive statistics like that are based on the prices corresponding to a basket of consumer goods, but don’t (in fact can’t) preserve the ratio of prices within that basket. That’s not a big deal if you can make some assumptions about distribution, or if everyone you’re dealing with has roughly the same lifestyle, but in areas like Somalia I’d expect local distribution costs to make things like, say, razor blades a lot more expensive relative to locally produced goods like, say, sorghum flour. And that does have subsistence implications.
Well, there is a caveat there. The PPP estimates that drive statistics like that are based on the prices corresponding to a basket of consumer goods, but don’t (in fact can’t) preserve the ratio of prices within that basket. That’s not a big deal if you can make some assumptions about distribution, or if everyone you’re dealing with has roughly the same lifestyle, but in areas like Somalia I’d expect local distribution costs to make things like, say, razor blades a lot more expensive relative to locally produced goods like, say, sorghum flour. And that does have subsistence implications.
Somalia’s still a really poor country, though.