GNP

                The Gross National Product, also known as the GNP, and Gross Domestic Product, is the market value of all the products and services produced in one year by labor and property supplied by the citizens of a country. “This means that all production is summed in terms of their market prices, only the value of final goods is included (as opposed to including the value of all intermediate sales), and only the output of productive factors located in a particular nation is counted. Already, some of the shortcomings of GDP as a measure of social welfare can be inferred” (Hanseconomics). One shortcoming of GNP that is stated from the website Hanseconomics, “Perhaps the most significant shortcoming of GDP as a measure of economic growth is its inclusion of government spending alongside other voluntary market transactions”. Meaning its biggest problem is that it is only including things that are regulated. Another shortcoming of GNP is, “GDP also fails to discount those economic activities that do not directly raise individual welfare. Military spending is the most obvious example of such an activity. While defense services may be seen as necessary to allow other economic activities to flourish, they are not valued for their own sake” (Hanseconomics). Belize however, “Over the 20-year history of the Index, Belize’s economic freedom score has declined by 6.2 points, the 12th largest rating deterioration” (2014 Index of Economic Freedom). Belize is ranked twenty first out of twenty nine countries in Central America when it comes to their Gross National Product.

Figure 1: pictured above is graph of Belize's GDP/GNP

Work Cited:

HansEconomics. "The Shortcomings of GDP as a Measure of Economic Growth." HansEconomics. HansEconomics, 29 Jan. 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2014

2014 Index of Economic Freedom. "Belize." 2014 Index of Economic Freedom. 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.

Figure source:

Figure 1: https://www.google.com/search?