The BEA Wire | BEA's Official Blog
BEA to Expand Coverage of Intellectual Property Rights
Expenditures for research and development (R&D) and for entertainment, literary, and artistic originals provide long-lasting service to the businesses, nonprofit institutions, and government agencies that use them. These expenditures have many characteristics of other fixed assets—ownership rights can be established, and they are long lasting and used repeatedly in production processes. As part of its 14th comprehensive revision of the…
BEA to Move to Accrual Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension Plans
Employers provide employees with retirement benefits largely through two mechanisms: defined contribution plans like 401(k)s or defined benefit pension plans. Under defined benefit plans, employees accrue benefits based on factors such as the employee’s length of service and salary history. Employers provide these promised benefits to employees through a pension fund. Employers, and in some cases employees, make cash contributions to the…
U.S. Current-Account Deficit Increases in First Quarter 2013
The U.S. current-account deficit—the combined balances on trade in goods and services, income, and net unilateral current transfers—increased to $106.1 billion (preliminary) in the first quarter of 2013 from $102.3 billion (revised) in the fourth quarter of 2012. As a percentage of U.S. gross domestic product, the deficit increased to 2.7 percent from 2.6 percent. The previously published current-account deficit for the fourth quarter was $…
BEA Introduces New Measures of the Regional Economy
Today, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released experimental real, or inflation-adjusted, estimates of personal income for states and metropolitan areas. The inflation adjustments are based in part on regional price parities (RPPs), which provide a measure of differences in price levels across each state and region relative to the national price level for each of the years 2007–2011.
Widespread State Economic Growth in 2012
Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased in 49 states and the District of Columbia in 2012. Leading industry contributors were durable-goods manufacturing, finance and insurance, and wholesale trade. Durable-goods manufacturing was the largest contributor to U.S. real GDP by state growth in 2012.
April 2013 Trade Gap is $40.3 Billion
The U.S. monthly international trade deficit increased in April 2013 according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau. The deficit increased from $37.1 billion (revised) in March to $40.3 billion in April as imports increased more than exports. The previously published March deficit was $38.8 billion. The goods deficit increased $3.2 billion from March to $58.6 billion in April; the services surplus increased $0.1…
Real Consumer Spending Slows Slightly
Personal income remained flat in April after increasing 0.3 percent in March. Wages and salaries, the largest component of personal income, remained flat in April after increasing 0.2 percent in March.
Current-dollar disposable personal income (DPI), after-tax income, decreased 0.1 percent in April after increasing 0.2 percent in March.
Real DPI, income adjusted for taxes and inflation, increased 0.1 percent in April after…
GDP Growth Accelerates in First Quarter
Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 2.4 percent in the first quarter of 2013 after increasing 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The first-quarter growth rate was revised down 0.1 percentage point from the advance estimate released in April.
GDP highlights The following contributed to the acceleration in growth:
May 31st Deadline for Returning Completed Foreign Direct Investment Surveys Draws Near
The May 31st deadline is rapidly approaching for people to return their completed BE–12 surveys to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
These surveys are critical to BEA’s ability to produce statistics on foreign direct investment in the United States. The statistics help policymakers and the general public understand the impact of foreign investment on the U.S. economy.
Therefore, it is vitally important that you waste no…
March 2013 Trade Gap is $38.8 Billion
The U.S. monthly international trade deficit decreased in March 2013 according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau. The deficit decreased from $43.6 billion (revised) in February to $38.8 billion in March as imports decreased more than exports. The previously published February deficit was $43.0 billion. The goods deficit decreased $4.6 billion from February to $56.1 billion in March; the services surplus…
Real Consumer Spending Increased in March
Personal income increased 0.2 percent in March after increasing 1.1 percent in February. Wages and salaries, the largest component of personal income, increased 0.2 percent in March after increasing 0.7 percent in February. Wages for services industries’ slowed, while wages for goods industries turned down slightly.
Current-dollar disposable personal income (DPI), after-tax income, increased 0.2 percent in March after…
GDP Growth Picks Up in the First Quarter
Real gross domestic product (GDP) accelerated in the first quarter of 2013, increasing 2.5 percent after increasing 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.