to the extent

[Eartha]

Dear all,

How should I understand the underlined?

I knew the phrase means " to the degree", but I cannot get the logic in the context below.

Thanks in advance.

Of course, to the extent that companies sell goods to the emerging markets, the profits of quoted companies can grow faster than domestic GDP. But that requires investment to keep the corporate sector competitive, and capital expenditure has not been happening on a sufficient scale.

[SoothingDave]

It means that the more that a company sells in emerging markets, the more that company can grow. One would expect a company that only sold domestically to grow, on average, as much as the GDP of that country grows.