According to the four stages of a business cycle (expansion, peak, contraction, trough), an expansion is an upward trend when a country's economy experiences relatively rapid growth as measured by a rise in industrial production, employment, consumer spending, and utilization of resources. Whereas a recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of decline in
GDP,
economic recovery and prosperity are two successive phases of expansion. Economic expansion can be affected by external factors such as technological changes or weather conditions, or by internal factors such as a country's
fiscal policy,
monetary policy,
regulatory policy,
interest rates, the availability of
credit, or other impacts on producer incentives. Global events, such as pandemics, may also influence the amount of economic activity in various countries. Economic expansion and
contraction refer to the overall output of all goods and services, while the terms "
inflation" and "
deflation" refer to rising and falling prices of commodities, goods and services in relation to the value of money. ==References==