Overview of Economic Environment

ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
• Economic Environment refers to all those

economic factors, which have a bearing on the
functioning of a business. Business depends on
the economic environment for all the needed
inputs.
• It also depends on the economic environment
to sell the finished goods. Naturally, the
dependence of business on the economic
environment is total and is not surprising
because, as it is rightly said, business is one unit
of the total economy.
IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENT
• Managers assess economic environment and
forecast market trends in the effort to make better
investment choices and competitive strategies.
• Economic analysis look at several indicators of an
economic environment with emphasis given to how
local conditions require adjusting analysis and
interpratation.
• The economic environments of foreign companies
and markets can help managers predict events that
might affect the company’s future performance.
ELEMENTS OF ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENT
• GROSS NATIONAL INCOME:
the income generated both by total domestic
production as well as the international
production activities of national companies.
GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT:
the total value of all final goods and services
produced in a country in a given year equal to
total consumer, investment, and government
spending, plus the value of exports, minus the
value of imports.
• PER CAPITA CONVERSION:
The per capita GNI is taking GNI of a country
and converting it into a standard currency say
at US DOLLARS at prevailing market rates and
then dividing this sum by its population leads
to a Per Capita Conversion estimator.
it helps to explain an economy’s performance
in terms of people who live in that country.
3. Rate Of Change
• GDP growth rate indicates a country’s
economic potential.
• High GDP rate means rising standard
of living
• Business opportunites
• Example- China has been one of the fastest
growing economies over the past 2 decades,
which attracted an immense amount of FDI.
• The developing countries like China and India
have a higher growth rate than the US
4. Purchasing Power Parity
• The purchasing power in terms of foreign exchange
• To compare markets, the per capita income is
converted into foreign terms
• Exchange rate tells how many units of currency it takes
to buy one US dollar
• Per capita income does not consider the difference in
cost of living from one country to another. Like, the
cost of living in the US and India differ, but it assumes
that the dollar of income of US and the dollar of
income of India has the same purchasing power
• The number of units of a country’s currency
required to buy the same amounts of goods
and services in the domestic market that one
unit of income would buy in the other
country.
• Estimating the value of a universal basket of
good and services that can be purchased with
one unit of a country’s currency
• Per capita income is higher in India than the
US because of the lower cost of living.
5. Human Development Index
• The actual level of development of a country
• How well a country does in terms of social
liberties, life expectancy, and literacy rates.
• 3 dimensions
 Longevity : Life expectancy at birth
 Knowledge : Adult Literacy Rate; Combined
primary, secondary and tertiary gross
enrollment ratio
 Standard of Living : Per capita income expressed
in Purchasing Power Parity for US Dollars
Other Indexes
 Gender-Related Development : Inequalities
between men and women
 Gender Empowerment : Women’s opportunities
in decision making, power over economic
resources
 Human Poverty : Denial of choices and
opportunities
Features of Economic
Environment
• 1. Inflation
• Rise in price measured
against a standard level of purchasing power
• It results when aggregate demand grows
faster than aggregate supply
• It affects cost of living, exchange rates, interest
rates
Implications of Chronic inflation
• It affects the cost of living as the rising prices

makes it more difficult for consumers to buy
products unless their income rises at same
pace.
•Customers cannot effectively
plan long term investments ,
no incentives to save
Measure of inflation
• US- Consumer Price Index (CPI)
• Europe- Harmonized index of Consumer
Prices(HICP)
• India- Wholesale Price Index (WPI)
• HICP includes rural population and excludes

occupied housing
Employment
•It is number of workers who want to work
but do not have jobs
•Results in low economic

growth, creates social
pressures and provoke
political uncertainty
• Misery Index=Inflation + Unemployment rate
• Working age population
o Wealthier countries population will shrink
from 740million to 690mn
o In poorer countries working population will
increase from 3bn to 4bn
• Labor Regulation- Companies think twice
before they hire new employees [Hero Group]
DEBT
• Sum of borrowing from it population, foreign
organization and government
• Larger the debt, more uncertain is the
country’s economy
• Debt of US has increased from $1 trillion in
1980 to $9.4 trillion in 2008
• Types- Internal & External
• Internal Debt- When government spends
more than it collects
o Imperfect tax system
• External Debt- When government borrows

money from foreign lenders
• Ex- Zambia and Liberia has slow economic
growth rate
Income Distribution
• Fractions of population that are at various
levels of incomes
• Ginni Coefficient – assess degree of inequality
in distribution of
income
Income Distribution among wealthy
nations
• US has largest inequality gap
• Share of income to top 1% has increased and
decreased for the poorest 40%
• Urban vs Rural Income- In china urban income

is 7times more than rural income
POVERT
Y
Poverty: Condition where a person or
community is deprived of or lacks the
essentials for minimum standard of well being
and life.
Poverty as per World Bank:
– Extreme Poverty: living less than $1 per day(PPP)
– Moderate poverty: living less than $2 per
day(PPP)
• Poverty and Economic Environment:
 Throughout the world people struggle for basic
necessities.
 In face of extreme poverty market systems may
not exist, national infrastructures may not work,
criminal behavior may be pervasive and
governments may not be able to regulate society
or adopt prudent policies.
 Growth of the economy of business depends on
alleviating poverty.
LABOR COST
LABOR COST
– Key element of total cost.
– Companies scan the world to identify the
difference between low cost and high cost
countries.
PRODUCTIVITY
• Amount of output created per unit
input used.
• It is the efficiency with which goods and
services are produced.
BALANCE OF PAYMENTS
• Statement of country’s trade and financial
transactions created by individuals, business and
government agencies.
– CURRENT ACCOUNT
– CAPITAL ACCOUNT
ECONOMIC SYSTEM
• An economic environment is a mechanism
that deals with the production, distribution
and consumption of goods and services.
• It is a set of structures and processes that
guides the allocation of resources and shapes
the conduct of business activities in a country.
• The spectrum of economic analysis is
anchored by ideas of: i) Capitalism
ii)
Communism
• CAPITALISM
Free market system built on private ownership
and control.
Owners of capital have inalienable property rights
that give them right to earn a profit in return of
their effort, investment and risk.
• COMMUNISM
Centrally planned system built on state ownership
of economic factors of production and control of
all economic activity.
TYPES OF ECONOMIC SYSTEM
• MARKET ECONOMY
• COMMAND ECONOMY
• MIXED ECONOMY
MARKET ECONOMY
• A system in which individuals, rather than
government make the majority of the
economic decisions.
• Gives individual freedom to decide where to
work doing what, how to spend or save
money and whether to consume now or later.
Private Ownership of resources under Market
Economy:
• Individuals make decisions therefore market
economy depends on individuals and companies
owning and controlling resources rather than
government.
• Consumers influence the allocation of resources
through their demand for products.
Role of Government Intervention:
• Depends on few government restrictions as
possible.
• Believes that less invisible the “hand” becomes
due to government intervention , less efficiently
the market will run.
• The invisible hand is not infallible, given the needs
for some public goods.
COMMAND ECONOMY
• Also known as centrally planned economy.
• Government owns and controls all resources.
• The government commands the authority to
decide what goods and services, the quantity
in which they are produced and the price at
which they are sold.
• Governments owns the means of production
which are managed by employees of state.
• Prices do not change much but quality of
goods dramatically affected.
Continued..
• Most Products are short in supply.
• Consumers have few alternatives.
• Not much incentive for companies to innovate
• Little profit to invest in upgrades.
ADVANTAGE: State has ability to mobilize
unemployed or underemployed resources to
generate growth.
MIXED ECONOMY
• Fall in middle of Capitalist and communism.
• System in which economic decisions are largely
market driven and ownership is largely private,
but the government intervenes in private
economic decisions,
• Has elements of – market and central planning
economies.
• The government owns key factors of production
yet consumers and private producers influence
price and quantity.
• Government Intervention
Central, regional or local government may own
some means of production.
Government can influence private production olor
consumption decisions.
Government can redistribute income and wealth.

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ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

• Economic Environment refers to all those

• It affects the cost of living as the rising prices

• HICP includes rural population and excludes

•Results in low economic

• External Debt- When government borrows

• Urban vs Rural Income- In china urban income

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