Economic Expansion and its Effects on Natural Resources A Clustering-Based Approach

Over time, it has been constantly discussed and concluded that natural resources are essential elements for the socio-economic dimension of a country, having relevance both in terms of well-being and survival. The use of finite natural resources must follow the rationale that there is a need for future generations to benefit from these resources, because the depletion of non-renewable resources makes them indestructible in historical periods. Economic growth is a complex process of long-term evolution, which manifests itself as an increase in the capacity of a national economy to produce goods and services. This can only be analyzed over a long period of time. The economic balance represents the overall movement of an economy after eliminating seasonal or cyclical movements. The relationship between economic growth and natural resources must be viewed from a complex and sometimes contradictory perspective. Although natural resources are the foundation of all production, their abundance does not always imply long-term economic viability. Moreover, the relationship between these two elements is influenced by the limited availability of resources, which are not eternal in time. The purpose of this paper is to analyze economic growth in different countries of the world, using clustering algorithms. Cluster analysis is a useful tool for reducing sets of objects, or even variables, to a smaller number of information entities known as classes or clusters. The results showed that an optimal number of clusters to group the analyzed countries based on economic characteristics would be five.