# Economic potential

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{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}}
'''Economic potential''' is the [potential](/source/potential) of a [region](/source/region), [nation](/source/nation), or [corporation](/source/corporation) for [economic development](/source/economic_development) and [growth](/source/economic_growth). Typically, discussions of economic potential occur when available [resource](/source/resource)s have not yet been tapped and fully developed or [exploited](/source/exploitation_of_natural_resources), possibly because of missing [infrastructure](/source/infrastructure).

The [Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms](/source/Department_of_Defense_Dictionary_of_Military_and_Associated_Terms) (2005) defines economic potential as 
:"The total [capacity](/source/productive_capacity) of a nation to [produce](/source/production_(economics)) [good](/source/good_(economics))s and [service](/source/service_(economics))s."<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Joint Publication 1-02 |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/B9/B9875E9C2553D81D1D6E0523563F8D72_DoD_Dictionary_of_Military_Terms.pdf |journal=Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms |pages=174|date=12 April 2021|access-date=28 August 2025|id=JP 1&mdash;02|publisher=[United States Department of Defense](/source/United_States_Department_of_Defense)}}</ref>

==Measurement==
Economists measure economic potential through indicators such as potential output, labor productivity, and capacity utilization. Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank use structural models to estimate potential growth trends and the distance of an economy from its productive frontier.<ref>{{cite web |title=Potential Growth: A Global Database |url=https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099426303102336406/pdf/IDU0f9f2613e0a18e0486c0a2710e80b2c21a128.pdf |publisher=World Bank |date=2023 |access-date=18 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=World Economic Outlook: Estimating Potential Output |url=https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2015/02/pdf/c3.pdf |publisher=International Monetary Fund |date=2015 |access-date=18 November 2025}}</ref>

==See also==
* [Productive capacity](/source/Productive_capacity)
* [Potential output](/source/Potential_output)
* [Production–possibility frontier](/source/Production%E2%80%93possibility_frontier)
* [Developing country](/source/Developing_country)
* [Potential superpowers](/source/Potential_superpowers)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite encyclopedia |year=1970 |encyclopedia=[The Great Soviet Encyclopedia](/source/Great_Soviet_Encyclopedia) |edition=3rd |publisher=[The Gale Group](/source/Gale_(publisher)) |oclc=14476314 |access-date=28 August 2025 |entry=Economic Potential |entry-url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Economic+Potential }} <!-- year is actually 1970-1979, but invalid for cite encyclopedia -->
*{{cite news|title=Economic potential;In search of lost time|date=13 June 2014|author=R.A. | publisher=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/06/economic-potential}}

{{econ-stub}}

Category:Production economics

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Economic potential](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_potential) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_potential?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.