what was said

“Our economy is the envy right now of the world. We’re the fastest-growing economy in the world. Think of it. As large as we are, we’re the fastest-growing economy in the world, up $10 trillion.”

— President Trump, in remarks at the United Nations General Assembly meeting on Monday

the facts

This is exaggerated.

The United States does have one of the fastest growing of the world’s largest economies. But it is not the fastest growing in the whole world.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development compiles quarterly growth in real gross domestic product for its 36 member nations and nine other major economies like China, India and Brazil. The United States had the eighth-highest rate in the second quarter of 2018 out of this group. Its rate was the highest among the Group of 7, the largest of the industrialized democracies.

Among the entire world, however, the United States is nowhere near “the fastest-growing economy.” Growth rates among developing nations, while volatile, often exceed those of the big industrialized countries. In 2017, the United States’ G.D.P. annual growth rate ranked in the bottom third out of more than 180 countries, according to data from the World Bank.

The International Monetary Fund’s projections for G.D.P. growth rate for 2018 place the United States among the bottom half of about 190 countries. Similarly, Harvard University’s Atlas of Economic Complexity projects that the United States will reach an annual growth rate of 3.07 percent by 2026, placing it No. 104 out of 121 countries.