ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some exciting ways of calculating the growth rate with the help of natural logarithms and regression analysis. It discusses two Excel functions, namely the LINEST and LOGEST, in detail to determine the simple growth rate and compound annual growth rate, respectively. Regression analysis quantifies the relationship between the variables and estimates the influence of one or more variables on the other. LINEST function in Excel is short for linear estimation and performs the linear regression analysis. It calculates the statistics and returns an array of values describing a line using the ordinary least square method, which determines the equation of the straight line of best fit. LOGEST function in Excel is generally used to calculate the growth rate of the variable which grows exponentially due to compounding, that is, compound annual growth rate.
