Update on the quarterly national accounts - Part 4

In this fourth Note on the quarterly national accounts, we mine for more data to see how the economy is evolving, and observe whether this provides information that we need to be aware of when thinking about government policy. Specifically, we will be trying to find out what aggregate demand components are providing the biggest push to growth in real GDP. This analysis of "contributions to growth in real GDP" can be helpful to see if the economy is growing in a sustainable or unsustainable way. It can also provide important clues about competitiveness.

What is the difference between a growth rate and a contribution to growth, you may ask? Let us assume that real GDP grows from 100 to 105 between two certain time points. We then would say that the economy has grown by 5 percent over this interval. We can further ask what are the contributions from domestic demand and net...

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