And yet, the value of these items are only included in GDP in the year in which they are produced. This is often the way in which cross country comparisons are made. One might prefer a lower GDP with a more equitable distribution to a higher GDP in which a small percentage of the population receives most of the product. Thus even if the economy produces exactly the same amount of goods and services one year as the year before, if the prices of those goods rise, then GDP will rise as well. Sometimes economies with high GDPs may also produce a large amount of negative production externalities.
Pollution is one such negative externality.
Thus one might prefer to have a lower GDP and less pollution than a higher GDP with more pollution. Also some groups argue that rapid GDP growth may involve severe depletion of natural resources which may be unsustainable in the long-run. Shortly after the Kobe earthquake in Japan in the 1990s, economists predicted that Japan's GDP would probably rise more rapidly. This is mostly because of the surge of construction activities required to rebuild the damaged buildings. This illustrates why GDP growth may not be indicative of a healthy economy in some circumstances.