Friday, April 25, 2014

A New Look at Growth Data

The Commerce Department has unveiled a new way to look at the growth of the economy. Now, in addition to an overall GDP number, we will also get a quarterly breakdown of how each industrial sector contributed to that economic growth.

The data takes a while to compile. so today's report covers up through the fourth quarter of 2013. But it makes it more possible to see what caused the turns our economy has taken. For example, as the recession was hitting in the third quarter of 2008, nearly every industry sector was down, led by the financials, which alone contributed 2 percentage points of contraction. The wholesale trade, agriculture and mining, and health and education were the only segments to continue to show growth.

By the fourth quarter of 2009, though, nearly every segment aside from the financials had returned to growth. At that point, only construction and agriculture and mining were also still showing losses. This data had previously been available annually, but at times like the recession, when the economy was changing rapidly, it will be invaluable to have a more detailed snapshot.

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