Further to my previous question on the expression in Time magazine’s November. 10, 2011 article “China’s Century or India’s?”, there was the following sentence in the same article:
“The country (China) continues to run a huge current account surplus and will be posting only a slight budget deficit this year. It also has over $3 trillion (and counting) worth of foreign-exchange reserves and, in a world in which the developed nations are engaged in beggar-thy-neighbor currency devaluations, a steadily strengthening renminbi.”
I don’t understand the meaning of “and counting” in the line, “It also has over $3 trillion (and counting) worth of foreign-exchange reserves.” What does it mean? Does “and counting” add special significance or precision to the statement and $3 trillion figure?
Best Answer
"... and counting ..." became a popular phrase due to televised footage of NASA rocket launches, which were popular viewing from the outset of the American space programme in the 1960s, and much of the Space Shuttle era in the 1980s, until launches became so commonplace that many people ceased to find them exciting.
Most people are still familiar with the ten seconds leading up to lift-off, which is counted down second by second "ten ... nine ... eight ...". But the countdown begins long in advance of that, starting at "T minus 43 hours and counting".
"... and counting" means that the countdown clock is still ticking. The clock is paused at some key stages in the run-up to lift off. At those times, the announcer instead says "T minus 20 minutes and holding", whereupon the clock is stopped while a variable-length procedure is conducted. Then when the clock is restarted, we hear "T minus 20 minutes and counting".
Those of us of a certain age, as we read "over $3 trillion (and counting)", will hear "and counting" in the crackly telephone-like tone and American accent of the NASA countdown engineer.
Use of the phrase by people from that era, is likely to be deliberately referencing NASA countdowns. However it is a common enough phrase that it is now used by people who perhaps have no knowledge of that background.