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Real GDP
About This Indicator
What Is Real GDP?
GDP with inflation stripped out, so growth means more was produced, not just that prices rose. Before 1947 the quarters are estimated from yearly figures.
Why Does It Matter?
Real growth lets living standards rise, and small differences compound: at 3% a year output doubles in about 23 years, at 2% in about 35. It measures production, not well-being: it adds rebuilding after a hurricane and never subtracts the homes destroyed.
Can Politics Influence It?
Fiscal policy, tax law, regulation, and trade move it at the margin, beside forces no branch controls, such as productivity and demographics.
Key Idea
Growth over a term owes a lot to where it starts: one opening in a recession grows off a low base, one near a peak often inherits the next downturn. First estimates are drafts: BEA first put the drop in 2008's last quarter at a 3.8% annual rate; revisions more than doubled it.
Scored: Faster Growth Ranks Better
Source: BEA. NIPA Table 1.1.6 (A191RX).
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