Gross Domestic Product.

Is The total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total consumer, investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports. The GDP report is released at 8:30 am EST on the last day of each quarter and reflects the previous quarter. Growth in GDP is what matters, Gross domestic product (GDP) refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. It is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living.[1][2]

Each initial GDP report will be revised twice before the final figure is settled upon: the "advance" report is followed by the "preliminary" report about a month later and a final report a month after that. The GDP numbers are reported in two forms: current Naira and constant Naira Current Naira GDP is calculated using today's naira and makes comparisons between time periods difficult because of the effects of inflation. It is important to differentiate Gross Domestic Product from Gross National Product (GNP). GDP includes only goods and services produced within the geographic boundaries of a county regardless of the producer's nationality. GNP doesn't include goods and services produced by foreign producers, but does include goods and services produced by that countrys firms operating in foreign countries. Its functions. The gross domestic product (GDP) is one the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a country's economy. It represents the total naira value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period - you can think of it as the size of the economy. Usually, GDP is expressed as a comparison to the previous quarter or year. For example, if the year-to-year GDP is up 3%, this is thought to mean that the economy has grown by 3% over the last year. Measuring GDP is complicated (which is why we leave it to the economists), but at its most basic, the calculation can be done in one of two ways: either by adding up what everyone earned in a year (income approach), or by adding up what everyone spent (expenditure method). Logically, both measures should arrive at roughly the same total. Different approaches. The income approach, which is sometimes referred to as GDP(I), is calculated by adding up total compensation to employees, gross profits for incorporated and non incorporated firms, and taxes less any subsidies. The expenditure method is the more common approach and is calculated by adding total consumption, investment, government spending and net exports. As one can imagine, economic production and growth, what GDP represents, has a large impact on nearly everyone within that economy. For example, when the economy is healthy, you will

typically see low unemployment and wage increases as businesses demand labor to meet the growing economy. A significant change in GDP, whether up or down, usually has a significant effect on the stock market. It's not hard to understand why: a bad economy usually means lower profits for companies, which in turn means lower stock prices. Investors really worry about negative GDP growth, which is one of the factors economists use to determine whether an economy is in a recession.

GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result. They are the product (or output) approach, the income approach, and the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the product approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The expenditure approach works on the principle that all of the product must be bought by somebody, therefore the value of the total product must be equal to people's total expenditures in buying things. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the productive factors ("producers," colloquially) must be equal to the value of their product, and determines GDP by finding the sum of all producers' incomes.[4] Example: the expenditure method: GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports imports), or

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an economic measure of a nation's total income and output for a given time period (usually a year). Economists use GDP to measure the relative wealth and prosperity of different nations, as well as to measure the overall growth or decline of a nation's economy. The most common way to measure GDP is the expenditure approach. With the expenditure approach, GDP is the sum of the following elements:

Total domestic consumption: This is the total amount spent on domestically produced final goods and services. Final goods are items that will not be resold or used in production within the next year milk, cars, bow ties, and so on. Total domestic investment expenditures: This measurement includes not only investments in stocks and bonds, but also investments in equipment such as bulldozers, computer servers, and commercial buildings that will be useful over a long period of time. It also includes inventory goods final goods waiting to be sold that a company still has on hand.

Government expenditures: This includes everything from paying military salaries to building roads and maintaining monuments, but does not include welfare and social security payments. Net exports: Net exports is the total of goods and services produced domestically and sold to foreigners minus goods and services produced by foreigners but sold domestically (imports). But there are a number of shortcomings to using GDP. Here are just a few: GDP doesn't count unpaid volunteer work: GDP doesn't take into account work that people do for free, from an afternoon spent picking up litter on the roadside to the millions of man-hours spent on free and open source software (such as Linux). In fact, volunteer work can actually lower GDP when volunteers do work that might otherwise have gone to a paid employee or contractor. Disasters can raise GDP: Wars require soldiers, oil spills require cleanup, and natural disasters require health workers, builders, and all manner of helping hands. Rebuilding after a disaster or war can greatly increase economic activity and boost GDP. GDP doesn't account for quality of goods: Consumers may buy cheap, low-quality, short-lived products repeatedly instead of buying more expensive, longer-lasting goods. Over time, consumers could spend more replacing cheap goods than they would have if they had bought higher-quality goods in the first place, and GDP would grow as a result of waste and inefficiency.

GDP - real growth rate: 6.8% (2010 est.) 5.6% (2009 est.) 6% (2008 est.) Year GDP - real growth rate Rank Percent Change Date of Information 2003 3.00 % 105 2002 est. 2004 7.10 % 25 136.67 % 2003 est. 2005 6.20 % 44 -12.68 % 2004 est. 2006 6.90 % 43 11.29 % 2005 est. 2007 5.30 % 90 -23.19 % 2006 est. 2008 6.40 % 66 20.75 % 2007 est. 2009 5.30 % 78 -17.19 % 2008 est. 2010 5.60 % 22 5.66 % 2009 est. 2011 6.80 % 31 21.43 % 2010 est. Definition: This entry gives GDP growth on an annual basis adjusted for inflation and expressed as a percent. Source: CIA World Factbook - Unless otherwise noted, information in this page is accurate as of March 11, 2010

Equivalent Data From the International Monetary Fund

Variable: Gross domestic product, constant prices Note: Annual percentages of constant price GDP are year-on-year changes; the base year is country-specific. Units: Percent change Country-specific Note: See notes for: Gross domestic product, constant prices (National currency). Source: International Monetary Fund - 2010 World Economic Outlook Year Gross domestic product, constant prices Percent Change

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

12.766 -0.618 0.434 2.09 0.91 -0.307 4.994 2.802 2.716 0.474 5.318 8.164 21.177 10.335 10.585 5.393 6.211 6.972

97.40 % -104.84 % -170.23 % 381.57 % -56.46 % -133.74 % -1,726.71 % -43.89 % -3.07 % -82.55 % 1,021.94 % 53.52 % 159.39 % -51.20 % 2.42 % -49.05 % 15.17 % 12.25 %

2008 5.984 2009 6.96 2010 7.398

-14.17 % 16.31 % 6.29 %