Which national economies, if any, were not affected by the Great Depression of the 1930's? Did anyone actually grow during this period while the majority of developed nations were mired in recession/depression?

by lingben

I'm curious to know if any significant nation (not say, a micro-nation in Polynesia) was able to get through the 1930's unscathed or even in better shape while the rest of the major economies like US, Canada, Europe suffered in either deep recessions or outright depression?

I would appreciate any hard data, GDP/GNP, unemployment, etc., if you know of it.

Thank you.

International_KB

The Soviet Union is the obvious exception. The Great Depression had an impact, in that it reduced earnings from foreign trade, but this was relatively minor. The reduction in grain prices made the managing the balance of payments more difficult but, overall, the Soviet economy had few connections with the capitalist market economies. Most of the capital used in its industrialisation drive was savaged from domestic sources and thus unaffected by the global slowdown.

The issue is of course that putting accurate figures on the growth of national income is notoriously difficult in the Soviet case. Nonetheless, and regardless of costs, there's no question that the Soviet economy did grow significantly in these years. Indeed, Moscow made great propaganda hay of this contrast and tens of thousands of US citizens emigrated to the USSR (what Tim Tzouliadis has called 'the Forsaken').

If you do want figures then Mark Harrison has a good essay on exactly this (complete with comparisons to capitalist economies over these years) in The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union. I don't have it on hand (travelling this week) but I can give you details at the weekend, if you're still interested then.