Gross Domestic Product ( GDP )

The quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) report is the most comprehensive of all the top-tier economic statistics and is considered the benchmark for the overall state of affairs in the U.S. economy. There are two measures the BEA employs when estimating the size of the U.S. economy, GDP and gross domestic income (GDI). GDP is calculated by the aggregate demand, or expenditures approach, while GDI is the aggregation of costs and incomes in the associated output. This chapter focuses on the expenditures approach, since that is the more common of the two estimates on the Street. The data reported in the GDP release are presented in two forms, nominal and real. Nominal, also known as current-dollar GDP is the total value, at current prices, of all final goods and services produced during the reporting period. Real, or constant-dollar, GDP is the value of these goods and services using the prices in a specified base year.