Economy · Core
Gross Domestic Product
GDP is the market value of final goods and services produced in an economy over a period — the size of the flow, not the wealth stock.
Definition
Expenditure: C+I+G+NX. Real GDP holds prices constant; nominal does not. Revisions are large. It misses home production, some digital surplus, and distribution. Potential GDP is a model; actual is a print.
Why it matters
Policy, earnings, and recession calls all hang on it. Nowcasts exist because the official print is slow and revised.
Case
A first print of +2% that revises to 0.4% two years later. The tape traded the first number; the history book uses the third.
How to read it
Real vs nominal, QoQ annualized vs YoY, and the revision vintage. Then look at GDI and unemployment — one print is not the economy.
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