NEW YORK — The increased use of digital technologies could boost productivity for the world’s top 10 economies and add $1.36 trillion to their total economic output in 2020, according to a new study by Accenture (NYSE:ACN).
The study is based on the Accenture Digital Density Index (http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-digital-density-index-guiding-digital-transformation.aspx?c=strat_digidens_10000001&n=otc_0315).
The Index measures the extent to which digital technologies penetrate a country’s businesses and economy. A country’s “digital density” is determined by a scorecard comprising over 50 indicators, such as the volume of transactions conducted online, the use of cloud or other technologies to streamline processes, the pervasiveness of technology skills in a company, or an economy’s acceptance of new digitally driven business models.
The Index reveals that a ten point improvement in digital density (on a 100-point scale) over five years would lift GDP growth rates in advanced economies by 0.25 percentage points, and by 0.5 percentage point in emerging economies.
That would power the U.S. to a GDP uplift of $365 billion in 2020. Emerging economies, such as Brazil, India and China could see rises of between $97 billion and $418 billion.
