Pros and Cons of Development Indicators

GDP - Positives There is a lot of historical data to compare as many countries measure GDP. It remains the same (uniform). Therefore easy to calculate and consistent to measure across all countries.  It summarises a range of economic information and determines the comparative strengths and weaknesses of various sectors. GDP helps policy-makers and analysts to easily guide, adjust and implement economic policy. GDP is widely used in different parts of the world that give economist studies in comparing countries. GDP serve as accurate barometer of the economic climate, where it provides the government and business' with useful information to adjust in different kinds of contingency problems like recession and depression.

GDP - Negatives GDP does not include non-market activities. These activities are based on production and consumption that occur outside the market economy that does not have a price attached like unpaid house workers, volunteer work, barter and the illegal drug trade / the black market. It also does not include domestic household products. Does not consider the "real value" of money as it uses price x volume (yet prices change based on inflation, purchasing power of the currency changes) It does not accurately measure the changes in productivity due to not adjusting with inflation. Does not consider a nation's distribution of wealth or determine a nation's poverty.  Can be misleading, for example in China; it has one of the world's largest economies, which would lead you to think quality of life there is good. 

GNI - Positives GNI per capita will tell you exactly how much income a person gets on average, this makes it more accurate. Figures are more easily obtainable than measurements for HDI and can be compared on a yearly basis as the population and national income is usually released by governments on a yearly basis.

GNI - Negatives It indicates the income of the whole country, whether it has a population of one billion or one million. For example in China, as this GNI is divided over more than 1 billion people, it isn't accurate at all compared to measuring a population of 100,000, for example. Again, this measurement can be misleading if there are a lot of super-rich who earn a lot of income, and on the other hand, many people with little/no income.

HDI - Positives It includes more than one measurement making it more accurate. Development involves more than just economical factors, so the fact that the HDI includes education and standard of living, making it more reliable for measuring development. The HDI can also be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with such different human development outcomes.  For example, the Bahamas and New Zealand have similar levels of GNI per person, but life expectancy and years of schooling differ greatly between the countries, resulting in New Zealand having a much higher HDI than the Bahamas.

HDI - Negatives Doesn't take other important factors into consideration, such as gender equality, literacy rate, death rate, poverty and distribution of wealth. The Index has also been criticised as "redundant" and a "reinvention of the wheel", measuring aspects of development that have already been exhaustively studied.  Lacks year to year comparability as a large amount of countries do not release the data required to calculate HDI on a yearly basis, as they do for GDP, for example. Accused of assessing development differently in different groups of countries It is difficult to use the HDI to monitor changes in human development in the short-term because two of its components, namely life expectancy and mean years of schooling change slowly.