another option

Hi Lisa,

If this is from Spain, we use the long scale, so our billion is a million million, i.e. a trillion:

The long and short scales are two different numerical systems used throughout the world:

Short scale is the English translation of the French term échelle courte.[1] It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term greater than million is 1,000 times the previous term: "billion" means "a thousand millions" (109), "trillion" means "a thousand billions" (1012), and so on.
Long scale is the English translation of the French term échelle longue. It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term greater than million is 1,000,000 times the previous term: "billion" means "a million millions" (1012), "trillion" means "a million billions" (1018), and so on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

Long scale countries
106 = one million, 109 = one milliard / thousand million, 1012 = one billion, 1015 = one billiard / thousand billion, 1018 = one trillion, etc.
The traditional long scale is used by most Continental European countries and by most other countries whose languages derive from Continental Europe (with the notable exceptions of Greece and Brazil). Many of these countries use a word similar to milliard to mean 109, and/or a word similar to billion to mean 1012. Some examples of long scale use, and the words used for 109 and 1012, are:

Andorra (Catalan: miliard or typ. mil milions, bilió)
Argentina (Spanish: mil millones, billón)
Austria (Austrian German: Milliarde, Billion)
Belgium (French: milliard, billion; Dutch: miljard, biljoen; German: Milliarde, Billion)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serbian: милијарда milijarda, Билион bilion; Croatian: milijarda, bilijun)
Canada (Quebec French-speaking: milliard, billion)
Chile (Spanish: mil millones, billón)
Colombia (Spanish: mil millones, billón)
Costa Rica (Spanish: mil millones, billón)
Croatia (milijarda, bilijun)
Czech Republic (miliarda, bilion)
Denmark (milliard, billion)
Dominican Republic (Spanish: mil millones, billón)
Ecuador (Spanish: mil millones, billón)
El Salvador (Spanish: mil millones, billón)
Finland (Finnish: miljardi, biljoona; Swedish: miljard, biljon)
France (French: milliard, billion; Catalan: miliard or typ. mil milions, bilió)
Germany (Milliarde, Billion)
Guatemala (Spanish: millardo, billón)
Hungary (milliárd, billió or ezer milliárd)
Iceland (milljarður, billjón)
Italy (miliardo, bilione [17])
Liechtenstein (Alemannic German: )
Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: milliard, billioun; French: milliard, billion; German: Milliarde, Billion)
Mexico (Spanish: mil millones or millardo, billón)
Monaco (French: milliard, billion)
Netherlands (miljard, biljoen)
Norway (milliard, billion)
Paraguay (Spanish: mil millones, billón)
Peru (Spanish: mil millones, billón)
Poland (miliard, bilion)
Portugal (mil milhões or milhar de milhões, bilião)
Romania (miliard, bilion)
Serbia (милијарда milijarda, Билион bilion)
Slovakia (miliarda, bilión)
Slovenia (milijarda, bilijon)
South Africa (Afrikaans: miljard, biljoen)
Spain (Spanish: millardo or typ. mil millones, billón; Catalan: miliard or typ. mil milions, bilió)
Sweden (miljard, biljon)
Switzerland (French: milliard, billion; German: Milliarde, Billion; Italian: miliardo, bilione)
Uruguay (Spanish: mil millones or millardo, billón)
Venezuela（Spanish: mil millones or millardo, billón)
(same ref)

Good luck!

Álvaro :O)



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Note added at 18 mins (2008-11-28 10:10:02 GMT)
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Most English-language countries use the short scale. For example:

Australia
Canada (English-speaking)
Hong Kong (English-speaking)
Ireland (English-speaking)
New Zealand
Philippines (English-speaking: Some short-scale words have been adopted into Filipino.)
South Africa (English-speaking)
Singapore (English-speaking)
United Kingdom
United States
(same ref)

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Note added at 27 mins (2008-11-28 10:18:17 GMT)
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Whooooaaaaa there!

I hadn't actually read the context involved.

This would be far too large a figure unless the time frame was huge:

China's imports and exports exceed US $2 trillion in first ten months.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/6533176....

Obviously, unless we're referring to exports dating back to the 16th century or so, 1.63% of Spain's total exports could never exceed the import/export figures of China, could they???

I can only assume that the figure was either misused or that it was written in a country that uses the short scale.

Billion it should be I guess.

:O) :O)

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Note added at 1 hr (2008-11-28 10:57:46 GMT)
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Hi Lisa. No it can't - but that's the way the numbers should work.
To be honest I rushed to get an answer in when I should've checked against the context first - sorry about that.

Anyway, perhaps my answer may be of some use after all. As the figure is clearly wrong according to Spanish usage, you could even point it out to the client in case they need/want to change the source document.

As a rule of thumb, I always presume the scales used are as above but always check against "real" figures when handling very large amounts I'm not familiar with.

It does of course mean that extra little bit of work, but it's the only way of making sure you're right.

Here's a link to Spain's overall trading figures quoted by the WTO.
http://stat.wto.org/CountryProfile/WSDBCountryPFView.aspx?La...

As all figures are quoted in millions, it's relatively easy to check against. You can use the statistics database to check any country's trade figures, or even select several countries or regions. In this case you'll see that if the figures were in UK/US trillions, it would exceed Spain's annual GDP.
:O)