8 past-paper questions on this unit. Five of them are below. Answer on the page: each one is marked the moment you pick, the correct option is shown whether or not you found it, and the full explanation opens either way.
Cambridge IGCSEPaper 1 MCQsFree account
Economic Growth: five questions to try now
Real past-paper questions, the answer key from the mark scheme, and the explanation that goes with it. No account needed to answer them.
Question 1
The diagram shows a country’s economic growth rate over a 5-year period. –1 –2 year 1 year 2 year 3 year 4 year 5 What can be concluded from the diagram?
Answer: C.
The diagram plots the growth RATE, not the level of output. Whenever the rate is positive, output is still rising, so output keeps accumulating and is highest at the END of the period, in year 5. Output only falls in a year when the rate is negative, and it falls furthest by the end of the negative stretch, not automatically in year 4. Distinguish the rate from the level before reading anything off a growth chart.
Question 2
Economic growth is usually measured by the annual change in
Answer: B.
Economic growth is an increase in the total output of an economy, so it is measured by the annual change in gross domestic product, which is the value of everything produced in the country over the year. A measures only one component of demand, and consumer spending can rise while investment or exports fall, leaving output flat. C measures only part of the supply side, since manufacturing and construction exclude agriculture and the whole service sector, which is the largest part of most modern economies. D measures the wrong thing entirely, because the retail price index tracks how much prices have risen and a country can have high inflation with no growth at all.
Question 3
The table shows figures for the real GDP of a country. quarter 1 quarter 2 quarter 3 quarter 4 ($bn) ($bn) ($bn) ($bn) 100 101 99 98 A quarter is three months. During which quarters was the country experiencing a recession?
Answer: C.
A recession is two CONSECUTIVE quarters of falling GDP, so look for the run of falls rather than any single drop. Output rises from 100 to 101, then falls to 99 and again to 98, quarters 3 and 4 are the two consecutive declines. Quarter 2 is a rise, so no period including it qualifies, and the entire period cannot be a recession when output grew at the start.
Question 4
The table shows figures for the real GDP of a country in a particular year. quarter 1 quarter 2 quarter 3 quarter 4 ($bn) ($bn) ($bn) ($bn) 100 101 99 98 A quarter is three months. At the end of which quarter had the economy experienced a recession?
Answer: D.
A recession is two CONSECUTIVE quarters of falling GDP, so look for the first point where two falls have happened in a row. Output rises to 101, falls to 99, then falls again to 98, the second consecutive fall completes at the end of quarter 4, which is when the economy is in recession. Quarter 3 is only one quarter of decline, which is the trap: one fall is not enough.
Question 5
A country has the highest GDP per head in the world. What is this information most likely to suggest about the country?
Answer: D.
GDP per head divides output by population, so it measures output per person and is used as a broad indicator of living standards. It says nothing about totals: a country with the highest GDP per head is usually small, not the biggest economy, and certainly not the most populous, a large population would push the figure down. Growth rates are a separate measure of change over time rather than of level.
These questions are drawn from past Cambridge IGCSE papers and filtered to economic growth. You answer, you find out immediately whether you were right, and you get the reasoning for the correct option and for each distractor. Wrong answers go to a mistakes locker so you can come back to exactly those.
Practice is free. You need an account only so your progress and your mistakes are still there next time.
These are the errors that cost marks on economic growth, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
Treating nominal GDP growth as economic growth.
Forgetting population when discussing living standards.
Saying growth always makes everyone better off, it raises the average.
Ignoring environmental costs and sustainability.
Confusing a recession (falling output) with slower growth (output still rising, just more slowly).
Listing benefits with no costs when asked to evaluate.
