Question

In 2010, us nominal gdp was estimated to be $14.657 trillion dollars while the real gdp was estimated to be $13.245 trillion. why the difference? what is the significance of the difference between these two measures of gdp? do you expect nominal gdp to be higher than real gdp for most years? explain.

Answer 1

Answer:

Nominal gross domestic product (GDP) measures the market value of all the new and legal goods and services produced in a country within a year. While real GDP adjusts nominal GDP to inflation. Since inflation is generally positive, real GDP decreases as inflation increases. The higher the inflation rate, the larger the difference between nominal and real GDP. Depending on which year is used as base year (year 0), the difference that existed in 2010 can be either significant or not.

The difference = ($14,657 / $13,245) - 1 = 10.66%, which means that nominal GDP was 10.66% higher than real GDP. If the base year is 2000 or even 2005/6, the difference is very small since the accumulated inflation would only be 10.66% for all these years. But if the base year was 2008 or even 2009, then the inflation rate is high.