That’s how many different currencies in which The Global 5000 companies report their results.
For each of those companies reporting their annual revenue we convert their results to one common denominator (we use USD) so that all companies can be compared and analyzed uniformly.
Just one of the many details that need attention in a database of companies to produce a “simple” list of the 5,000 largest companies across the globe.
One of the interesting discussions in the industry currently is how will the future AI tools handle when companies report in different currencies. We ask since we often see media coverage of company’s earnings be reported casually without much detail. For example, a company may report revenue of 5.6 billion. In their home country, that may be Euros – but Euros are not called out or mentioned.
AI tools will pick that up and report back 5.6 billion. The reader won’t think to ask or check what currency that is and ASSume it is the one they would be reading into it. We expect there will be a number of issues along these lines.