Bureau of Economic Analysis
Visit the Bureau of Economic Analysis Web site, www.bea.gov (Links to an external site.), and access the BEA interactively by selecting:
- Under “Principal Federal Economic Indicators,” select “Gross Domestic Product” and then
- Select the orange button, “Explore Product View”
- Scroll down and select “Interactive Data, then GDP and the National Income and Product Account (NIPA) Historical Tables.”
- Select “Section 1- Domestic Product and Income”
- Use Tables 1.1.5 and 1.1.6 to report nominal GDP and real GDP for the past four quarters.
Answer the following questions using the data you find:
- Submit quarterly data for nominal and real GDP for the last 4 quarters.
- Why was nominal GDP (Table 1.1.5) greater than real GDP (Table 1.1.6) in each of the quarters shown?
- Calculate the percentage change in nominal GDP and real GDP for the most recent 2 quarters? One quarter to the next.
- Click the tab at the top “NIPA Tables,” select Table 1.1.1, click the modify button, select 2012 as the first year, select 2021 as last year, click on annual, then select Refresh Table. Calculate the average growth rate (Just add them up and divide by 10.) across the ten years selected. How does that growth rate compare to our long run average growth rate of about 3%?