Macroeconomic Impact on Business Operations

Essay by amyessayUniversity, Master'sA+, June 2006

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Macroeconomics explores trends in the national economy as a whole considering the study of the sum of individual economic factors. Industry is affected by factors such as GDP, unemployment, inflation, interest rates, and consumer price index. Fiscal (government) policy can help guide the economy toward a particular track without dictating a specific ending affecting tax, interest rates, and government spending (McConnell and Brue, 2005). Monetary policy attempts to achieve vast economic goals by regulating the supply of money through influencing outcomes like economic growth, inflation, and unemployment. Both policies attempt to control or regulate the economy. "If monetary policy is doing its job, the government should maintain a relatively neutral fiscal policy, with a full-employment budget deficit or surplus of no more than 2 percent of potential GDP" (McConnell and Brue, 2005). Businesses face challenges accurately assessing the effects of GDP on their business, staying abreast of current economic trends, and employing strong forecasting firms (University of Phoenix, 2006).

The pharmaceutical industry and others have been challenged with maintaining economic profitability and have emerged with best practices to respond to macroeconomic factors.

The pharmaceutical industry and others have been challenged with maintaining economic profitability and have emerged with best practices to respond to macroeconomic factors. Higher medicine expenses, an aging population that is living longer, and the additional use of costly technology contribute to increasing healthcare costs. "The United States spends a greater share of its GDP on healthcare than any other country in the world..." however this has not resulted in the highest human development rankings nor overall health system performance (EIU, 2006). Increased healthcare premium portions and prescription co-pays have been passed on to the consumer. This contributes to increasing healthcare costs which affect the consumer price index measure of a change in the cost of basic goods...