What is Economic Growth

The question is whether economic growth is the same as economic development. I am going to make fair points about them and decide whether they are the same. Economic growth refers to the rise in the value of everything produced in the economy. It implies the yearly increase in the country’s GDP or GNP, in percentage terms. It alludes to a considerable rise in a per-capita national product, over a period, i.e. the growth rate of increase in total output, must be greater than the population growth rate. Economic growth is often contrasted with economic development, which is defined as the increase in the economic wealth of a country or a particular area, for the welfare of its residents. Here, you should know that economic growth is an essential but not the only condition for economic development.

Economic growth is the positive change in the real output of the country in a particular span of time while economic development involves a rise in the level of production in an economy along with the advancement of technology, improvement in living standards and so on. The concept of economic growth is narrow while the concept of economic development is Broad. The scope of economic growth is increasing in the indicators like GDP, per capita income etc. The scope of economic development is an improvement in life expectancy rate, infant mortality rate, literacy rate and poverty rates. Economic growth has a short-term process while economic development has a long-term process. Economic growth is applicable to developed economies while economic development is applicable to developing economies. How can they be measured? Economic growth can be measured by upward movement in national income. Economic development can be measured by upward movement in real national income. Which kind of changes are expected? At economic growth, quantitative changes can be expected. At economic development, qualitative and quantitative changes can be expected. The type of process at the economic growth is automatic while at the economic development it is manual. When do they arise? Economic growth arises in a certain period of time while economic development arises continuously.

Economic growth is defined as the rise in the money value of goods and services produced by all the sectors of the economy per head during a particular period. It is a quantitative measure that shows the increase in the number of commercial transactions in an economy .Economic development is defined as the process of increasing volume of production along with the improvement in technology, a rise in the level of living, institutional changes, etc. In short, it is the progress in the socio-economic structure of the economy.

To understand the two terms economic growth and economic development, we will take an example of a human being. The term growth of human beings simply means the increase in their height and weight which is purely physical. But if you talk about human development, it will take into account both the physical and abstract aspects of maturity level, attitudes, habits, behaviour, feelings, intelligence and so on. In the like manner, growth of an economy can be measured through the increase in its size in the current year in comparison to previous years, but economic development includes not only physical but also non-physical aspects that can only be experienced like improvement in the lifestyle of the inhabitants, increase in individual income, improvement in technology and infrastructure, etc.

As a conclusion, we can say that economic development is a much bigger concept than economic growth. So we can clearly say that economic growth and economic development are not the same.

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