Today in the media, it is increasingly possible to hear the opinion thatGDP - an indicator that, in fact, does not mean anything. How can this be so? After all, all countries necessarily count on it? Does not GDP growth mean automatic improvement of the nation's welfare? In order to understand this question, let's find out how this indicator is calculated.
To begin with, it should be mentioned that GDP isthe aggregate value of all goods produced and services provided by residents and non-residents of a given country on its territory for a certain period of time (most often for a year). In order to take into account inflation, economists can consider the final cost both in real prices and in base prices. There are several basic methods for calculating this indicator.
The production method of calculating GDP isin fact, the assessment of this macroeconomic indicator by taking into account all products in the broad sense of the word, but without their repeated counting. It should be noted that here it is only about final goods and services. But researchers can not always go into the question of how the products are used. Therefore, an index was invented, which is called added value. It is the difference between the market price of a given product and the cost of materials that the firm spent on its production. GDP - this is the sum of added values that were produced in the country for a certain period.
Another method is the method of calculating thisthe indicator on expenditures (on the flow of goods), it involves summing the costs of various business entities to purchase the final products that they need. In this case, GDP is the result of the addition of consumer income of the population, gross private investment in the economy, the volume of government purchases of goods and services, as well as net exports.
You can also calculate this indicator by income.This method is also called distributive. In this case, the GDP of Russia or any other country is the sum of wages, interest, profits and rents, that is, factor incomes, of all economic entities that operate in the territory of a given country. It is important to understand that they take into account the incomes of both residents of that country and non-residents. Direct and indirect taxes and depreciation should also be included in the calculation of this indicator, because the costs of some business entities are those of others.
In addition to GDP, macroeconomic analysis suggestsdefinition of gross national product (GNP). This indicator differs from GDP in that it takes into account only services and products produced by residents of a given country both on its territory and outside it. For its calculation, similar methods are used. GNP is GDP plus the difference between the factor income of residents abroad and non-residents who have carried out their activities in the country. Also, economists usually determine the potential GDP, which assumes full use of all available resources of the state, including labor, as well as a stable price level. It is important just to analyze the inflation and problems of this phase of the business cycle.
