GDP Going Forward

The possibilities are endless

For three weeks, the focus has been on Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”) and the posted articles set a great foundation for future analysis. Obviously, there is a lot of material related to GDP that could still be covered but it’s time to mix it up content-wise and cover something different.

I already alluded to this as the most logical topic secondary topic when I first covered GDP (i.e the stock market) but, before we move on to that, let’s take one last look back at what has been covered so far and what is available for down the road when we update GDP on an ongoing basis with new releases.

Here is a very simple summary of the main concepts covered previously that are hopefully familiar now:

1. Real GDP versus Nominal GDP

2. GDP’s underlying composition

3. Quarterly changes in GDP

4. How to track the latest GDP estimates

It definitely makes sense to track all of these things going forward to see how the economy is doing. Fortunately, the Bureau of Economic Analysis provides a release calendar, so we know exactly when to check for the next quarterly GDP update:

1. January 30th for 2019Q4 GDP

2. April 29th for 2020Q1 GDP

3. July 30th for 2020Q2 GDP

4. October 29th for 2020Q3 GDP

Basically, quarter-end plus one month. And, yeah, there are other smaller interim updates where the BEA often makes small changes to GDP based on new estimates as data comes in but, unless something is absolutely crazy, I don’t think it warrants covering much beyond the initial release dates above.

So, that is the plan! The next release is just a few days away, so hang tight.