COMMENTARY: Economic Growth Is Not A True Measurement Of Citizens Well-Being

…..by Audley Phillip

Economic Growth Is Not A True Measurement Of Citizens Well-Being

From time to time, our leaders perceive and promote what they see as our country’s  majestic economic growth.

In his recent Independence Day message Prime Minister Honourable Gaston Browne highlighted what he called Antiguas  impressive annual growth rate, which according to him exceeds 8 percent over  the last 3 years.

He went on to say that Antigua and Barbuda’s growth would be 9.5 percent this current year making us the second fastest growing economy in the region, second only to oil rich Guyana.

To be quite honest, I think that those figures are nothing short of nice sound bites intended to paint a rosy picture of things in Antigua & Barbuda.

If the growth is as wonderful as the Prime Minister made it out to be, it is certainly not felt in the pockets of the average Antiguan and Barbudan who lives from paycheck to paycheck as a norm.

After paying their monthly bills, many people here struggle to buy basic food items which are costly and rising daily.

Whilst many people  are gainfully employed, we still have a large number of young people leaving school and unable to secure meaningful long term jobs.   Life sure isn’t a bed of roses for many as we are led to believe.  We also have a large percentage of our population that lives in rented properties.

Rents are enormously high, electricity and water rates are high and unreliable, internet and other telecommunication services are high and the list goes on and on.

There is no doubt that things are hard in Antigua and Barbuda for the average person so when the Prime Minister talks about economic growth, a sizable  percentage of the population  doesn’t experience, know, see or feel  the kind of growth that he enunciates.

A country’s  economy grows when it has the capacity to produce more. Production is based on how much capital, labour, natural resources, and technology it can produce. Policies that encourage the accumulation of any of these leads to economic growth.

When an economy is producing beyond potential output, it might have experienced an increase in real GDP, but that is NOT economic growth. It would be interesting to hear and learn how the much touted economic growth came about.

 

Usually, the much  trumpeted and acclaimed economic growth is responsible for raising  living standards.

However, modern economies such as ours here in Antigua and Barbuda have lost sight of the fact that the standard metric of economic growth, gross domestic product (GDP), merely measures the size of a nation’s economy and doesn’t reflect on  the  nation’s and its peoples welfare. Policymakers and economists often treat GDP, or GDP per capita in some cases, as an all-encompassing unit to signify a nation’s development, by combining its economic prosperity and societal well-being.

The story is not so simple.

Focusing exclusively on GDP and economic growth to measure development ignores the true predicament of people and their everyday living conditions.

It is time to acknowledge the limitations of GDP and expand our measure of development so that it takes into account  the average person’s quality of life.   Only then would we be truly doing justice to the real situation as it pertains to the circumstances of the ordinary  people.

Even as we continue to speak about our phenomenal growth year in year out, the country is still grappling with a  domestic water supply that is sporadic, erratic and irregular at best, poor roads, bridges and drainage system, and a run down city that badly needs sprucing up.

Perhaps we should airmark some of that growth dollars in fixing these issues  and then we would believe that the Prime Minister is serious  when he talks about the country’s staggering  economic growth. Until then,  we should   concentrate more on the plight of the ordinary  Antiguan & Barbudan and stop singing this artificial, fictitious and fake economic growth “melody”  that is getting  us nowhere.

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