Leaders of the fee world: How much a country's leader is paid compared to GDP per person

Jul 5th 2010

ON MONDAY July 5th Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister, rejected the pay increase he was awarded by the
country's parliament last week. MPs had granted Mr Odinga a rise to nearly $430,000 a year, while giving
themselves a 25% increase to $161,000. This boost would place Mr Odinga among the highest-paid political
leaders in the world. More worryingly, his salary would be some 240 times greater than the country's GDP per
person (measured on a purchasing-power parity basis). Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore, tops
our list of selected leaders' salaries. He is paid more than 40 times the city-state’s GDP per person. At the other
end of the scale, Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India, reaffirms his reputation for saintliness by taking
a modest sum from Indian taxpayers.

1. What is GDP per capita and how has it been used in this context? [4]
2. [IB Higher] What is purchasing power parity and how has it been used in this context? [4]
3. Explain, with examples from the extract, the difference between a normative and positive statement. [4]