ABSTRACT
A country can only have economic growth by increasing production and/or consumption, or increasing the population – or both. Governments get anxious when gross domestic product (GDP) figures are about to be published. These are a measure of the production and consumption of goods and services, and media analysts pour over the data looking for trends and insights. Two periods of negative GDP change mean a recession where the economy contracts and jobs are lost or become worse paid. The positive GDP growth is cheered, and negative GDP shifts are frowned upon. A serious problem with GDP is that it mainly measures economic transactions but ignores social and environmental costs and inequality measures. Robert Kennedy once said that a country's GDP measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile. Some argue that it's not GDP growth that's the real problem here, but the fact that greater economic activity leads to more greenhouse gas emissions.
