Macroeconomic Aims

Macroeconomic aims are the objectives a government tries to achieve for the whole economy. They are the top-level targets that guide fiscal policy, monetary policy, and supply-side policy.

Most IGCSE syllabuses focus on five main aims. A government rarely achieves all five at once: pursuing one often makes another harder, which creates policy conflicts (covered in section 4).

The five aims:

1. Economic growth.
2. Low (stable) inflation.
3. Low unemployment / full employment.
4. Balance-of-payments equilibrium for the current account.
5. Equitable distribution of income (reduced inequality).

Each is examined separately in sections 2 and 3, and they are tested together in conflict and benefit questions in sections 4 and 5.