Kazakh President proposes to stop referring to GDP as citizens well-being indicator

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ASTANA. KAZINFORM The President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has suggested revising the procedure for calculating the gross domestic product per capita, Kazinform correspondent reports from a plenary session of the 10th Astana Economic Forum.

Speaking at the session opening, the Head of State said that the world needed a gradual transition to a new economic model, and presented his vision of the important aspects of the world economy development. They include the need for revising the GDP calculation.

"Today, it is necessary to bring to the international agenda the issue of developing new methods for calculating the indicators that measure the wealth of countries and the welfare of their citizens. The GDP indicator, frequently used by all of us, has a number of significant disadvantages. GDP does not reflect the long-term nature of economic activity. It does not take into account the damage to the environment, including the natural resource depletion. In addition, it does not reflect the quality of life in a particular country. GDP per capita does not show the real well-being of citizens and it disregards the stratification of population by income," Nursultan Nazarbayev said.

According to him, the conventional GDP creates a false perception of economic prosperity. "I believe that based on the green GDP and such indices as the Human Development Index and the OECD Better Life Index, the world community can adopt an updated GDP calculation procedure. It should adequately reflect the needs for balanced development of countries," the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan noted.

It should be noted that over 4,000 delegates from 100 countries are attending the Astana Economic Forum, which is held on June 15 and 16, 2017. They include politicians, economists, representatives of international organizations. In total, 40 sessions of various formats are planned. They are discussing the world economy digitization, smart and sustainable cities of the future, as well as the transition of states to a green economy. At the same time, over 100 foreign and domestic logistics companies are taking part in the International Transport & Logistics Forum. In general, about 200 speakers will make their speeches there.

 

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