Twenty-nine of the world's 100 largest economic entities are transnational corporations, according to a new list produced by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) ranking both States (according to GDP) and corporations (according to salaries, pre tax profits, depreciation and amortisation).

Exxon Mobil, with a "value added" worth of $63 billion, is bigger in economic size than Pakistan and Algeria. Greece is in the 34 place with a GDP of $113bn, Israel in the 35th place ($110bn), Turkey in the 22nd place ($200bn) and Egypt in the 38th place ($99bn).

The rising importance of transnational corporations in the global economy is revealed in other statistics compiled by UNCTAD. The agency reports that the 100 largest companies accounted for 3.5 per cent of global gross domestic product in 1990 - a figure which jumped to 4.3 per cent in 2000. There were 24 corporations in the 1990 combined top 100 list of companies and countries, compared with 29 in 2000.