NEW PERSPECTIVES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

In the first decades of the 21st century, in a period characterized by turbulent, liberalized economic environment, in a world marked by a strong demographic growth, depletion of natural resources, climate change and destruction of ecosystems, we are more concerned than ever about the issues related to economic growth and development. In the first part of the paper, we presented the result of an overview study, based on which we synthesized the dynamics of the determinants of economic growth, after which we carried out a comparative study of economic growth and development. The second part of this paper presents a review of those economic indicators that are considered to be the most relevant in measuring economic development. The conclusions of the paper converge on the idea that, despite controversies regarding the importance of GDP as an indicator of economic development, it continues to remain the most present and important reference indicator in economic statistics. However, in order to obtain an accurate and more complex image of the economic and social performance, it is recommended to use several indicators in combination with GDP.