You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

In many countries, the government prioritises economic growth above all other concerns. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own experience or knowledge.

Write at least 250 words.

It has become a common trend that many states place economic growth as their first priority, even they have other burning issues. The positive and negative sides of this trend are discussed in the following paragraphs.

On the one side, when a government prioritises economic growth, it anticipates faster pace of development, which can be very visible from outside. To be clearer, when this happens, it opens the doors for new businesses and new employments are created. More number of common people are benefitted by this and there emerges a strong middle class, which has much economic freedom and spending capacity. This in turn benefits the country’s revenue by means of tax, and eventually expands its economic power. However, when the government focuses more on other sectors like health and education, the results would be less-tangible and delayed.

On the other side, as the nation grows into an affluent economy, price rise and inflation would be more common. In other words, even if an average citizen earns more, he has to spend more when compared to what he had spent earlier. In addition, many small scale businesses are likely to get shut down and the basic strata of people tend to suffer with adverse consequences. In short, when the rich and the middle class have higher potentials to prosper, the condition of the less-privileged would become worse. This expected danger can be addressed effectively only when every concern of a state is addressed in a balanced manner.

In conclusion, as a coin has two sides, prioritising economic growth over other concerns have both positive and negative effects in a country.

Expected score: 7.5