Economic Growth and Economic Development

Many people think that economic growth and economic development refers to the same thing, which is not the case as they both are different and they both implies different things. Economic development is broader in its scope than economic growth. For example what would you want, a situation where you are presented with several dishes of food( which is economic development) or only 2 or 3 dishes of food( which is economic growth).

Economic growth refers to increase of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of the country, in simple words it refers to the quantity of goods and services which are produced by the country during a particular period usually a year. While economic development is a broader concept and it refers to increase in the standard of living along with the economic growth of the country, that is why it is said that a country can achieve economic growth without economic development but it cannot achieve economic development without economic growth.

Developed Countries are more interested in economic growth as compared to economic development as they have already attained a reasonable standard of living while developing countries would want to have both economic growth as well as economic development.