Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts of the United States, 1929-94, vol. 1; andSurvey of Current Business, May 2000.

http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/dn1.htm****************************************************************************************
|027120049
|027107048
|027EPlease complete:Contact: ___Gina Mannering_________________________________________________________________________

Phone: ____202 606-9732_________________________________________________________________________

Please enter the latest comparable data. If necessary, make title, headnote, andfootnote changes. If you wish to receive a Lotus 1-2-3 worksheet version of thesetables on diskette so that you may directly key the data yourselves, call our office.

Please call GLENN KINGat 301-457-1171 if you have any questions.
|027010
|027120048*National income and product accounts

The national income and product accounts (NIPA's) show the value and composition of the Nation's output and thedistribution of incomes generated in its production. The accounts include estimates of gross domestic product (GDP)-themarket value of the Nation's output of goods and services-in current and real terms, GDP price measures, the goods andservices that make up GDP in current and real terms, national income, personal income, and corporate profits. In addition,BEA produces specialized measures such as estimates of auto and truck output, GDP of corporate business, housing output,and business inventories and sales. Estimates of gross product originating by industry are prepared annually in current and realterms. Measures of the inventory and fixed capital stocks consistent with the NIPA output measures are also provided.Further, the accounts provide a consistent framework within which estimates of analytical interest-such as the role of researchand development in the U.S. economy or as the interaction of the economy and the environment-can be developed.

The estimates of GDP are prepared each quarter in the following sequence: Advance estimates are released near the end ofthe first month after the end of the quarter; as more detailed and comprehensive data become available, preliminary and finalestimates are released near the end of the second and third months, respectively. Monthly estimates of personal income andoutlays are released near the end of the month following the reference month; estimates for the 2 to 4 most recent months arerevised at that time. Ordinarily, annual NIPA revisions are carried out each summer and cover the months and quarters of themost recent calendar year and the preceding 2 years. (For example, the July 1994 revision covered 1991, 1992, and 1993.)These revisions are timed to incorporate newly available major annual source data. Comprehensive (benchmark) revisions arecarried out at about 5-year intervals, a comprehensive revision was released in January 1996. Current quarterly NIPAestimates appear in a set of 54 "selected" tables each month in the SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS. The full set ofNIPA tables (138 tables) usually is published at the time of annual revisions and comprehensive revisions. Annual estimates ofthe fixed capital stock are reported shortly thereafter.

*Terms

National income and product account

GDP is measured as the sum of personal consumption expenditures, gross private domestic investment (including change inbusiness inventories and before deduction of charges for CFC), net exports of goods and services (exports less imports), andgovernment consumption expenditures and gross investment. GDP excludes intermediate purchases of goods and services bybusiness.

Personal consumption expenditures is goods and services purchased by persons resident in the United States.Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) consists mainly of purchases of new goods and of services by individuals frombusiness. In addition, PCE includes purchases of new goods and of services by nonprofit institutions (includingcompensation of employees), net purchases of used goods by individuals and nonprofit institutions, and purchases abroad ofgoods and services by U.S. residents. PCE also includes purchases for certain goods and services provided bygovernment agenciesprimarily tuition payments for higher education, charges for medical care, and charges for water andsanitary services. Finally, PCE includes imputed purchases that keep PCE invariant to changes in the way that certainactivities are carried outfor example, whether housing is rented or owned, whether financial services are explicitlycharged, or whether employees are paid in cash or in kind.

The following conventions are used to classify each PCE commodity: Durable goods are commodities that can bestored or inventoried and that have an average life of at least 3 years; nondurable goods are all other commoditiesthat can be stored or inventoried; and services are commodities that cannot be stored and that are consumed at theplace and time of purchase.

Gross private domestic investment consists of fixed investment and change in business inventories.Fixed investment consists of both nonresidential fixed investment and residential fixed investment. Itconsists of purchases of fixed assets, which are commodities that will be used in a production process for more than 1 year,including replacements and additions to the capital stock, and it is measured before a deduction for consumption of fixedcapital. It covers all investment by private businesses and by nonprofit institutions in the United States, regardless ofwhether the investment is owned by U.S. residents. (Purchases of the same types of equipment and structures by governmentagencies are included in government gross investment.) It excludes investment by U.S. residents in other countries.Nonresidential fixed investment consists of both structures and producers' durable equipment (PDE).

Nonresidential structures consists of new construction, brokers' commissions on sales of structures, and net purchases ofused structures by private business and by nonprofit institutions from government agencies. New construction also includeshotels and motels and mining exploration, shafts, and wells.

Nonresidential PDE consists of private business purchases on capital account of new machinery, equipment such asfurniture, and vehicles (except for personal-use portions of equipment purchased for both business and personal use, whichare included in PCE), dealers' margins on sales of used equipment, and net purchases of used equipment from governmentagencies, from persons, and from the rest of the world.

Residential fixed investment consists of private structures and of residential PDEequipment owned by landlords andrented to tenants. Investment in structures consists of new units, improvements to existing units, mobile homes, brokers'commissions on the sale of residential property, and net purchases of used structures from government agencies.

Change in business inventories is the change in the physical volume of goods purchased by private business for usein the production of other commodities or for resale, valued in average prices of the period. It differs from the change in thebook value of inventories reported by most business; the difference is the inventory valuation adjustment (described on thenext page).

Net exports of goods and services is exports less imports of goods and services. Receipts andpayments of factor income and transfer payments to the rest of the world (net) are excluded.

Government consumption expenditures and gross investment consists of net purchases of goods, services, andstructures from business and from the rest of the world by general government; payments by general government tohouseholds in the form of compensation of employees; the consumption of general government fixed capital, whichrepresents the value of the current services of fixed assets of general government; net purchases of fixed assets bygovernment enterprises; inventory change of government enterprises; and a deduction for general governmentsalesprimarily tuition payments for higher education and charges for medical care. Of this total, gross investment is netpurchases of new and used structures and equipment by general government and government enterprises; all othertransactions are consumption expenditures. Government consumption expenditures and gross investment excludes purchasesby government enterprises (except for fixed assets), transfer payments, interest paid or received by government, subsidies,and transactions in financial assets and in nonproduced assets, such as land.