per capita GDP numbers : bogus?

Hi folks,

Recently I noticed that the per capita GDP
for France as compared to the USA was once
very close. In 1991, France was only a tiny
bit behind the USA. However when I look at
the recent numbers, the USA's per capita GDP
seems to have skyrocketed. This makes little
sense to me however, because the US dollar
has taken such a nosedive in the past 2
years.

Can someone tell me what is *really* going on
with this metric?

Thanks,
yf

Also, a link to some data
http://www.econstats.com/weo/V011.htm

.