Released Quarterly
Released by US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total value in dollars of all goods and services produced within the boundaries of a country in a given period. It is the broadest measure of economic growth, and economists use this number chiefly for ascertaining the overall expansion or declination in a nation's economy.
The common method for calculating GDP is to add up the values of all goods and services from each of the four sectors of the economy: Personal Consumption Expenditures, Gross Private Domestic Investment, Government Consumption Expenditures, and Net Exports. However, looking at these factors, one must question the use of the word "expenditures" for something that is supposed to be produced. The fact of the matter is that GDP is an equilibrium quantity--it measures both the value of all goods produced, or supplied, in an economy, and the value for which those goods sold.
This value can be expressed in a couple of different ways. Because this particular series of data is Real GDP, the dollar value of the goods and services is adjusted for inflation, so that an economist can better compare the relative growth of GDP in the 1950's and, say, in the 1990's. A rule of thumb for examining real values is the following equation: Real = Nominal - Inflation.
Because of its all-encompassing nature, GDP is one of the slowest numbers for the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to calculate. For this reason, BEA comes out with an advanced estimate for the GDP number a few weeks before they revise their data, with another release. Their final results are published a few weeks after that.
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