wht are the factors tht decide if a country is a developed/developing/under-developed country…
& wht is the criteria for a developing country to become a developed country…
Re: categorising countries
Sara, there are different economic tools that are used to measure the economy whether its going up or down or is stagnant.
Its hard to explain this whole concept in few lines but these are the basics that would help you understand the concept.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product): Its the total market value of the final products & services produced in a country within a year/time period. So economists calculate the total investment done in that country, the total consumption by people, govt expenditures, total exports and total imports.
Basically, it tells us the standard of living. So if a country has higher rate of investments ( manufacturing etc), it would have higher rate of employment, more exports, less imports etc etc so its like a cycle.
GNP (Gross National Product): Its the same thing as above but it doesn't include the foreign investments in that country. You know when companies invest in other countries to manufacture etc etc.
e.g. if someone from Pakistan invests in Dubai, it will be included in GDP but not GNP.
So each country compiles a quarterly & yearly report based on this information. The standard is US dollars so its calculated in US dollars. Once ready, it can be compared. Right now, US has the most GDP.
I guess, European Union as a whole has more than US but they are a union of several countries.
Per Capita Income: Income per person (its an average). e.g. in US, its about $16000 per year while in Pakistan, its about $2000 (am not exactly sure, it might be less than this in PK). so there are different categories based on these averages. Pak is in "C" category.
But this has a huge limitation. If a country has millionaires & billionaires, but on the other hand, a lot of very very poor people, the average would still go higher but infact the overall country would still be poor.
So these are the basic things that are measured regularly. Ofcourse there are several factors such as interests rates, inflation, currency value etc etc.
In a easier way to understand, The more, the Middle Class is, the better, the country is. Govts try to help poor people so they can move from poor class to middle class.
I can't cover the whole thing here and it was hard for me to explain here but lets see if it helps you understand the basic concept. :)
Re: categorising countries
Ok. I didn't notice your second question before. anyways, these are the things that help moving towards progress.
Economic stability, more investment, more exports, less imports, political stability, higher standards of Infrastructure such as roads etc, better communication standards such as phones, internet, etc. Govt investments as well as public etc etc.
There are so many things.......
Re: categorising countries
Here you can check countries clasification data & statistics in detail. 