The government's objective of sustainable economic growth seeks to achieve consistent economic growth at around 4-4.5%; avoiding both the excessive growth likely to damage the goals of price stability and equity and also avoiding insufficient growth that is likely to result in increased unemployment, lower living standards and inequity.
             The most common method of measuring economic growth is the chain volume measure of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The GDP measures the total market value of good and services produced in Australia. Basically growth is determined by the change in GDP.
             The GDP is, at best, an indication of economic growth. It relies on a series of guesses and estimation. There are several elements that are not included by the GDP, some examples are:
             · All non-market activity is excluded from the GDP (black market activity, cash changing hands, home repairs and gardening etc all fall in this category).
             · Imputed production- where the amount generated by the service must be estimated (for example, the value of government services).
             · Quality increases are not reflected by the GDP. When quality increases and prices decrease, that is reported as a loss in our well-being.
             · The GDP fails to make value judgements on expenditure, for instance if assaults broke out across the country and the ambulance received more calls, the GDP would rise because the expenditure on emergency services has increased. Clearly this is not an addition to our quality of life.
             BRIEF RECENT HISTORY OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
             propelled by strong business and consumer confidence as well as increases in real income. Favourable supply-side factors included a growth in business profits and a decline in bankruptcies. In 1996/97, subdued consumer confidence, rising unemployment and reduced profit margins pushed a mild slowdown in growth. This was followed, in 97/98 to March 1999, by a period of strong economic growth ...