Superpower 2 Economy 101 tutorial

Copyright © 2001-2003 GolemLabs Laboratories Inc. - All rights reserved.

The economy side of Superpower 2, in spite of our efforts to simplify as much as possible, is
the most complicated part of the game. This mini-guide will help you learn the basis and
explain some information not given by the already very large manual.
The Basis
Each resource has a production, demand, trade, and balance field. They are always
represented in dollars. Your goal should always have more production than demand in each of
the 27 resources. The balance field tells you that; if it's red, you have a deficit in that resource,
if it's above 0$, you have a surplus. The ideal situation is 0$ everywhere.
The trade field tells you if you are exporting or importing of that resource. You can't export and
import a resource; it's one or the other. A negative trade value means you are importing, a
positive trade value means you are exporting. This formula explains the basis:
Production - Consumption - Trade = Available

The importance of resources

Resources are divided in 6 categories, from the most important to the less important. If your
population lacks food, it'll have greater negative effects than lack of Luxury Commodities. If
your country lacks resources, the human development level and the government's stability will
suffer, which will cause an avalanche of problems.

By order of importance, in percentage:
• (45 %) Food and Agriculture
• (20 %) Energy
• (10 %) Raw Materials
• (10 %) Industrial Materials
• (10 %) Finished Goods
• (5 %) Services

This means the energy resource are twice as important as Raw Materials. Poorer countries
give an even bigger priority to Food and Agriculture, while more developed countries need
more Services.
Inside each category, there are also some resources that are more necessary than others.

• Food and Agriculture

(25%) Cereals
(20%) Fruits and Vegetables
(20%) Meat
(15%) Dairy Products
(10%) Tobacco
(10%) Drugs

• Energy

(50%) Electricity
(50%) Fossil Fuels

• Raw Materials

(40%) Iron and Steel
(25%) Wood and Paper
(25%) Minerals
(10%) Precious Stones

• Industrial Materials
(40%) Chemicals
(25%) Plastics
(20%) Fabrics
(15%) Pharmaceuticals

• Finished Goods
(40%) Commodities
(20%) Machinery
(20%) Vehicles
(10%) Appliances
(10%) Luxury Commodities

• Services
(40%) Healthcare
(25%) Construction
(10%) Engineering
(10%) Retail
(10%) Legal Services
(5%) Marketing Advertising

Production Growth

The first thing you must know is that your resource production will always grow. It'll grow until it
meets the resource demand, and it'll grow even more if countries around the world need that
resource. Everything that you'll ready below affect how fast or slow the growth is.
Each resource category has a yearly growth. The guide will explain after what variables affect
those growths.
• ( 1 % yearly) Food and Agriculture
• ( 2 % yearly) Energy
• ( 1 % yearly) Raw Materials
• (10 % yearly) Industrial Materials
• (13 % yearly) Finished Goods
• (16 % yearly) Services
Several things affect the production growth of a resource.
• Economic Health: If the economic health is at 100%, it doubles the resource growth, if
it's at 0%, there will be no growth at all. At 50% the resource growth is average.
• Taxes: The Resource tax influences the growth. Higher taxes will lower the growth. No
tax at all raises the growth by 50%. Do not forget that the global tax mod is added to
every resource taxes. (i.e. Global tax mod of 3% and Cereal tax of 5% means Cereals
are taxed at 8%)
• Budget Modifier: The Environment slider helps the Food and Agriculture resources
growth rate. If the slider is at the maximum (right) it will give a bonus of 50%. If it's at
the minimum (left), there's a penalty of 50%. In the same way, the Education slider
helps the Services resources.
• Child Labour: If Child Labour is legal in your country, there's a 10% bonus to all
resources growth.
• Economic Partnership: Economic treaties will give different kind of bonuses, based
on the number and the strength of countries.
• Private / Public: If the resource is controlled by the government (public sector), the
growth rate has a penalty of 40%.

Imports / Exports

The most important rule is this: Countries with high GDP and economic health will import and
export their resources first since they have priority on poorer countries. So if the United States
wants to import Vehicles, they can do so. Following countries can pick up the rest, it there are
any. So poor countries, like Afghanistan for example, might have the need and cash to import
vehicles, but since they are very low in the import ranking, they might not get to import any.
To overcome this issue, countries can offer Common Market treaties, which are resolved
before the global market. In the situation above, Afghanistan could sign a Common Market with
Japan, which gives priority to the Afghanistan-Japan trades. The global market with the 193
countries will be calculated once all common markets are resolved.
But how do Import / Export really work?

PRIVATE SECTOR

Let's say you have a cereal production of 700 M and a cereal demand of 800 M. Your balance
is – 100 M, your people are hungry. You will need to import 100 M of cereals. Resource taxes
affect how much you will import, and how much money will you make. If you tax the cereals at
10%, you will make a 10 M profit, but you will import 90 M only. Higher taxes will give you more
trade money, but will lower the amount of resources you receive.
When you export a resource, higher taxes will give you more money short term (100% taxes
will give you the whole export value), but over time the high taxes will lower the resource
growth, so adjust carefully.
Every time you import 1 $, your GDP will drop by 1 $. Every time you export 1 $, your GDP will
rise by 1$. Since the personal income tax you receive is based on the GDP, it's very important
to export as much as possible. (Important and exporting in a public resource does not change
the GDP)
In the private sector, you can only import as much as half of your base GDP (GDP minus the
imports/exports modifier described above), so no countries can import at will in a privatecontrolled
economy.

PUBLIC SECTOR

If a resource is public-controlled, there's no limit on how you can import or export. Importing will
not drop the GDP, but exporting will not raise it. The only limit here is you budget, since every
import is reduced dollar by dollar from your budget. This means if you need 100 M of cereals, it
will cost you 100 M. The same goes for exports, if you have 100 M of meat laying around,
exporting it all will give you 100 M.
A public resource is never taxed. However, you have to control the desired imports/exports of
each resource your government controls. If you do not want to do so, you can check the box
called “Meet demand” at the bottom of the resource window. This will automatically import the
maximum amount needed, and will export the surplus. However it can be risky to do so with
poor countries, since importing everything can cost a lot more than you can afford.

GENERAL IMPORTS/EXPORTS POINTS

• You can never trade with a country you are at war, or have a trade embargo with.
• Even if the market availability is greater than 0 for a resource, you could be unable to
import some of it. There are limits on how you can import.
• The world market is not calculated every second. Depending on the speed you are
playing, it could take place every couple of weeks, or months.
• Illegal resources do not give you money, even if you are exporting them illegally.
• If the world production of a resource is too high (market availability is above 0), every
countries in the world will lose some production automatically in the following months.
The effects will be less on countries controlling a large percentage of the world
production, and deadlier on countries with just a little surplus.

Increase Production

Increasing production will automatically give you a boost of [x] % for a specific resource. You
cannot increase the production of a resource that you do not have at the beginning at the
game. For example, the United Kingdome cannot increase its tobacco production.
Increasing production costs a lot of money, but do not forget that the additional amount of
resources you gain will be added to the GDP of your country, which is a very good thing.

Inflation

Inflation does not deal with the trade system, but nonetheless we feel it's a good way to finish
this guide.
A high inflation level will raise every budget slider expenses. With a high inflation level you
could be forced to move some sliders to the left.
If the inflation goes too low, your revenues will drop a little.