UN Probes How the World Measures Progress: GDP Alone Is Not Enough

JAKARTA - The United Nations has begun to highlight the old way the world reads a country's progress. So far, many governments have been too fixated on gross domestic product or GDP. Economic figures go up, then it is considered all right. In fact, people's lives can still be heavy.

Citing Xinhua, Friday, May 8, the United Nations on Thursday proposed the first global blueprint to help countries measure progress with indicators that complement GDP.

The proposal is contained in a report entitled Counting What Counts: A Compass of Progress for People and Planet. The report was compiled by the United Nations Secretary-General's Independent High-Level Panel of Experts on Beyond GDP.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the report an important step to correct the old way of measuring progress that relies too much on GDP.

GDP is still the main measure of economic performance. However, Guterres said, GDP cannot be the only measure.

President of the UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock said the report offers a dashboard containing 31 indicators. The content includes economic, social, and environmental aspects, including the ability of communities to face disasters and respond to crises.

"The purpose of this report is not to reject GDP, nor to ignore the importance of economic growth," Baerbock said, quoted by Xinhua.

GDP can record economic growth. However, this figure does not automatically answer whether inequality has decreased, poverty has decreased, the environment has improved, or residents live more safely.

Nora Lustig, one of the group's expert chairs, said GDP ignores inequality and poverty. GDP also does not capture environmental damage and non-monetary dimensions of well-being such as health, education, and peace.

Another chairman, Kaushik Basu, emphasized that growth is not just about money. Growth can also mean better education, improved health, art, leisure time, and quality of life.

According to the UN Global Communications Department, the new dashboard refers to the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs indicators and existing statistical systems. Therefore, governments can immediately use it to help policymaking.

The report also highlights the cross-country impact. This means that the welfare of a country can be influenced by the decisions and activities of other countries.

The UN High-Level Panel of Experts on Beyond GDP is composed of 14 global experts. They were appointed in May 2025 and have backgrounds in economics, statistics, development policy, inequality, sustainability, and public policy.