Gross domestic product (GDP) (2024)

GDP at purchaser's prices is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources. Data are in constant 2015 prices, expressed in U.S. dollars. Dollar figures for GDP are converted from domestic currencies using 2015 official exchange rates. For a few countries where the official exchange rate does not reflect the rate effectively applied to actual foreign exchange transactions, an alternative conversion factor is used.

Limitations and exceptions: Each industry's contribution to growth in the economy's output is measured by growth in the industry's value added. In principle, value added in constant prices can be estimated by measuring the quantity of goods and services produced in a period, valuing them at an agreed set of base year prices, and subtracting the cost of intermediate inputs, also in constant prices. This double-deflation method requires detailed information on the structure of prices of inputs and outputs.

In many industries, however, value added is extrapolated from the base year using single volume indexes of outputs or, less commonly, inputs. Particularly in the services industries, including most of government, value added in constant prices is often imputed from labor inputs, such as real wages or number of employees. In the absence of well defined measures of output, measuring the growth of services remains difficult.

Moreover, technical progress can lead to improvements in production processes and in the quality of goods and services that, if not properly accounted for, can distort measures of value added and thus of growth. When inputs are used to estimate output, as for nonmarket services, unmeasured technical progress leads to underestimates of the volume of output. Similarly, unmeasured improvements in quality lead to underestimates of the value of output and value added. The result can be underestimates of growth and productivity improvement and overestimates of inflation.

Informal economic activities pose a particular measurement problem, especially in developing countries, where much economic activity is unrecorded. A complete picture of the economy requires estimating household outputs produced for home use, sales in informal markets, barter exchanges, and illicit or deliberately unreported activities. The consistency and completeness of such estimates depend on the skill and methods of the compiling statisticians.

Rebasing of national accounts can alter the measured growth rate of an economy and lead to breaks in series that affect the consistency of data over time. When countries rebase their national accounts, they update the weights assigned to various components to better reflect current patterns of production or uses of output. The new base year should represent normal operation of the economy - it should be a year without major shocks or distortions. Some developing countries have not rebased their national accounts for many years. Using an old base year can be misleading because implicit price and volume weights become progressively less relevant and useful.

To obtain comparable series of constant price data for computing aggregates, the World Bank rescales GDP and value added by industrial origin to a common reference year. Because rescaling changes the implicit weights used in forming regional and income group aggregates, aggregate growth rates are not comparable with those from earlier editions with different base years. Rescaling may result in a discrepancy between the rescaled GDP and the sum of the rescaled components. To avoid distortions in the growth rates, the discrepancy is left unallocated. As a result, the weighted average of the growth rates of the components generally does not equal the GDP growth rate.

Statistical concept and methodology: Gross domestic product (GDP) represents the sum of value added by all its producers. Value added is the value of the gross output of producers less the value of intermediate goods and services consumed in production, before accounting for consumption of fixed capital in production. The United Nations System of National Accounts calls for value added to be valued at either basic prices (excluding net taxes on products) or producer prices (including net taxes on products paid by producers but excluding sales or value added taxes). Both valuations exclude transport charges that are invoiced separately by producers. Total GDP is measured at purchaser prices. Value added by industry is normally measured at basic prices. When value added is measured at producer prices.

Growth rates of GDP and its components are calculated using the least squares method and constant price data in the local currency. Constant price U.S. dollar series are used to calculate regional and income group growth rates. Local currency series are converted to constant U.S. dollars using an exchange rate in the common reference year.

Gross domestic product (GDP) (2024)

FAQs

Gross domestic product (GDP)? ›

What is Gross Domestic Product? A comprehensive measure of U.S. economic activity. GDP measures the value of the final goods and services produced in the United States (without double counting the intermediate goods and services used up to produce them).

What is a simple definition of GDP? ›

GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services—that is, those that are bought by the final user—produced in a country in a given period of time (say a quarter or a year). It counts all of the output generated within the borders of a country.

What is the current GDP gross domestic product? ›

US GDP is at a current level of 28.65T, up from 28.27T last quarter and up from 27.06T one year ago. This is a change of 1.36% from last quarter and 5.87% from one year ago.

What is an example of a GDP? ›

GDP = the total market value of the final goods and services produced within the United States in a year. A good is a video game, a car, an apple, a gold ring. Goods are things that people make, grow or extract from the land. A service is a haircut, a bus ride, computer repair, a doctor's care.

What is the real gross domestic product of the GDP? ›

Real gross domestic product is the inflation adjusted value of the goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States.For more information see the Guide to the National Income and Product Accounts of the United States (NIPA).

How do you explain GDP simply? ›

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the most common measure for the size of an economy, and it measures the value of total final output of goods and services produced by that economy in a certain period of time.

How do you explain GDP to a child? ›

Gross domestic product, or GDP, is a measure used to evaluate the health of a country's economy. It is the total value of the goods and services produced in a country during a specific period of time, usually a year.

Who has the highest GDP in the world? ›

The United States is the undisputed heavyweight when it comes to the economies of the world. America's gross domestic product in 2022 was more than 40% greater than that of China, the world No. 2. Even more striking, U.S. GDP was over five times that of the next two largest economies, Japan and Germany.

What is the richest country in the world? ›

Luxembourg is the world's wealthiest country, with a GDP per capita of $143,742 thousand, according to the IMF. This is largely due to its strategic location in central Europe and its strong financial services sector.

Does real GDP include inflation? ›

Nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Real GDP both quantify the total value of all goods produced in a country in a year. However, real GDP is adjusted for inflation, while nominal GDP isn't. Thus, real GDP is almost always slightly lower than its equivalent nominal figure.

What does GDP tell us about? ›

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific time period. As a broad measure of overall domestic production, it functions as a comprehensive scorecard of a given country's economic health.

What is GDP in one word answer? ›

GDP stands for "Gross Domestic Product" and represents the total monetary value of all final goods and services produced (and sold on the market) within a country during a period of time (typically 1 year).

How is GDP calculated? ›

Accordingly, GDP is defined by the following formula: GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + Net Exports or more succinctly as GDP = C + I + G + NX where consumption (C) represents private-consumption expenditures by households and nonprofit organizations, investment (I) refers to business expenditures ...

What is GDP for dummies? ›

GDP measures the value of all final goods and services produced in an economy in a given period of time, usually a quarter or a year. A recession occurs when the overall level of economic activity in an economy is decreasing, and an expansion occurs when the overall level is increasing.

Does GDP go up with inflation? ›

Due to inflation, GDP increases and does not actually reflect the true growth in an economy. That is why the GDP must be divided by the inflation rate (raised to the power of units of time in which the rate is measured) to get the growth of the real GDP.

What is not included in GDP? ›

There are several things that GDP does not include such as activity between businesses, sales of goods or services produced outside the country, illegal goods or services, intermediate goods, transfer payments, and used goods. There are numerous examples of these uncounted activities.

What is GDP in very short? ›

Gross Domestic Product or GDP is referred to as the total monetary value of all the final goods and services produced within the geographic boundaries of a country, during a given period (usually a year). Gross Domestic Product is one of the most important indicators of the economic status of a country.

What is the real GDP for dummies? ›

So real GDP is GDP adjusted for inflation and more accurately reflects the actual increase or decrease in output—that is, production of goods and services. Economists measure economic growth by comparing real GDP over time.

What phrase defines GDP? ›

Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries.

What is the meaning of GPD? ›

GPD . ' means gallons per day. ''GPM'' means gallons per minute. Sample 1. GPD means the amount of Flow equal to gallons per day.

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