Annual Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts Annual Estimates for 2009-2011 Quarterly Estimates for 2009:I-2012:I

摘要

THE BUREAU of Economic Analysis (BEA) released revised estimates of the national income and product accounts (NIPAs) for 2009-2011 and for the first quarter of 2012 on July 27, 2012. As is usual in annual NIPA revisions, these estimates incorporated newly available source data that are more complete, more detailed, and otherwise more reliable than those that were previously incorporated. This annual revision has not greatly changed the general picture of the economy for the past several years. However, the revised estimates indicate that the decline during the recession was somewhat less steep and that the subsequent period of expansion was slightly less robust. The revised estimates of the change in real gross domestic product (GDP) show that for the period of contraction from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2009, real GDP decreased at an average annual rate of 3.2 percent; in the previously published estimates, it had decreased 3.5 percent. The cumulative decrease in real GDP was 4.7 percent (not at an annual rate); in the previously published estimates, the cumulative decrease had been 5.1 percent. For the period of expansion from the second quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2012, real GDP increased at an average annual rate of 2.3 percent; in the previously published estimates, it had increased 2.4 percent.