Economic expansion

An economic expansion is an increase in the level of economic activity, and of the goods and services available in the market place

Market

A market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby persons trade, and goods and services are exchanged, forming part of the economy. It is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange things...

. Its is a period of economic growth as measured by a rise in real GDP.Typically it relates to an upturn in production and utilization of resources. Economic recovery and prosperity are two successive phases of expansion. It may be caused by factors external to the economy, such as weather, or by factors internal to the economy, such as fiscal policies

Fiscal policy

In economics, fiscal policy is the use of government spending and revenue collection to influence the economy.Fiscal policy can be contrasted with the other main type of economic policy, monetary policy, which attempts to stabilize the economy by controlling interest rates and the supply of money....

, monetary policies

Monetary policy

Monetary policy is the process by which the government, central bank, or monetary authority of a country controls the supply of money, availability of money, and cost of money or rate of interest, in order to attain a set of objectives oriented towards the growth and stability of the economy...

, the availability of credit

Credit (finance)

Credit is the provision of resources by one party to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately, thereby generating a debt, and instead arranges either to repay or return those resources at a later date. It is any form of deferred payment...

, interest rates, regulatory policies

Regulation

Regulation is "controlling human or societal behaviour by rules or restrictions." Regulation can take many forms: legal restrictions promulgated by a government authority, self-regulation, social regulation , co-regulation and market regulation. One can consider regulation as actions of conduct...

or other impacts on producer incentives. Global conditions may influence the levels of economic activity in various countries.

Economic contraction and expansion relate to the overall output of all goods and services, whilst the terms inflation and deflation relate to the value of money.