News Release
These data have been superseded. Please see our latest releases for current estimates and contact information.
Gross Domestic Product, 2nd quarter 2011 (second estimate); Corporate Profits, 2nd quarter 2011 (preliminary estimate)
Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 1.0 percent in the second quarter of 2011, (that is, from the first quarter to the second quarter), according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 0.4 percent. The GDP estimates released today are based on more complete source data than were available for the "advance" estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 1.3 percent (see "Revisions" on page 3). The increase in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from nonresidential fixed investment, exports, personal consumption expenditures (PCE), and federal government spending that were partly offset by negative contributions from state and local government spending and private inventory investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased. The acceleration in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in imports, an upturn in federal government spending, and an acceleration in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by decelerations in PCE and in exports and a downturn in private inventory investment. __________________________ FOOTNOTE.--Quarterly estimates are expressed at seasonally adjusted annual rates, unless otherwise specified. Quarter-to-quarter dollar changes are differences between these published estimates. Percent changes are calculated from unrounded data and are annualized. Real estimates are in chained (2005) dollars. Price indexes are chain-type measures. This news release is available on BEAs Web site along with the Technical Note and Highlights related to this release. __________________________ Final sales of computers added 0.11 percentage point to the second-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.08 percentage point to the first-quarter change. Motor vehicle output subtracted 0.15 percentage point from the second-quarter change in real GDP after adding 1.08 percentage points to the first-quarter change. The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents, increased 3.3 percent in the second quarter, 0.1 percentage point more than in the advance estimate; this index increased 4.0 percent in the first quarter. Excluding food and energy prices, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 2.6 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent in the first. Real personal consumption expenditures increased 0.4 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 2.1 percent in the first. Real nonresidential fixed investment increased 9.9 percent, compared with an increase of 2.1 percent. Nonresidential structures increased 15.7 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 14.3 percent. Equipment and software increased 7.9 percent, compared with an increase of 8.7 percent. Real residential fixed investment increased 3.4 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 2.4 percent. Real exports of goods and services increased 3.1 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 7.9 percent in the first. Real imports of goods and services increased 1.9 percent, compared with an increase of 8.3 percent. Real federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment increased 2.0 percent in the second quarter, in contrast to a decrease of 9.4 percent in the first. National defense increased 7.1 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 12.6 percent. Nondefense decreased 7.5 percent, compared with a decrease of 2.7 percent. Real state and local government consumption expenditures and gross investment decreased 2.8 percent, compared with a decrease of 3.4 percent. The change in real private inventories subtracted 0.23 percentage point from the second-quarter change in real GDP, after adding 0.32 percentage point to the first-quarter change. Private businesses increased inventories $40.6 billion in the second quarter, following increases of $49.1 billion in the first quarter and of $38.3 billion in the fourth. Real final sales of domestic product -- GDP less change in private inventories -- increased 1.2 percent in the second quarter, after increasing less than 0.1 percent. Gross domestic purchases Real gross domestic purchases -- purchases by U.S. residents of goods and services wherever produced -- increased 0.9 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 0.7 percent in the first. Gross national product Real gross national product -- the goods and services produced by the labor and property supplied by U.S. residents -- increased 1.7 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 1.5 percent in the first. GNP includes, and GDP excludes, net receipts of income from the rest of the world, which increased $24.3 billion in the second quarter after increasing $36.6 billion in the first; in the second quarter, receipts increased $29.0 billion, and payments increased $4.7 billion. Current-dollar GDP Current-dollar GDP -- the market value of the nation's output of goods and services -- increased 3.5 percent, or $129.0 billion, in the second quarter to a level of $14,996.8 billion. In the first quarter, current-dollar GDP increased 3.1 percent, or $112.8 billion. Revisions The second estimate of the second-quarter increase in real GDP is 0.3 percentage point, or $9.6 billion, lower than the advance estimate issued last month, primarily reflecting downward revisions to private inventory investment and to exports that were partly offset by upward revisions to nonresidential fixed investment and to personal consumption expenditures (PCE). Advance Estimate Second Estimate (Percent change from preceding quarter) Real GDP.......................................... 1.3 1.0 Current-dollar GDP................................ 3.7 3.5 Gross domestic purchases price index.............. 3.2 3.3 Corporate Profits Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) increased $57.3 billion in the second quarter, compared with an increase of $19.0 billion in the first quarter. Current-production cash flow (net cash flow with inventory valuation adjustment) -- the internal funds available to corporations for investment -- increased $83.8 billion in the second quarter, compared with an increase of $21.1 billion in the first. Taxes on corporate income decreased $3.0 billion in the second quarter, in contrast to an increase of $17.6 billion in the first. Profits after tax with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments increased $60.3 billion in the second quarter, compared with an increase of $1.4 billion in the first. Dividends increased $13.6 billion compared with an increase of $19.0 billion; current- production undistributed profits increased $46.7 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $17.6 billion. Domestic profits of financial corporations decreased $54.2 billion in the second quarter, compared with a decrease of $38.7 billion in the first. Domestic profits of nonfinancial corporations increased $84.4 billion in the second quarter, compared with an increase of $19.7 billion in the first. In the second quarter, real gross value added of nonfinancial corporations increased, and profits per unit of real value added increased. The increase in unit profits reflected an increase in unit prices and decreases in both the unit labor and nonlabor costs corporations incurred. The rest-of-the-world component of profits increased $27.1 billion in the second quarter, compared with an increase of $37.9 billion in the first. This measure is calculated as (1) receipts by U.S. residents of earnings from their foreign affiliates plus dividends received by U.S. residents from unaffiliated foreign corporations minus (2) payments by U.S. affiliates of earnings to their foreign parents plus dividends paid by U.S. corporations to unaffiliated foreign residents. The second-quarter increase was accounted for by a larger increase in receipts than in payments. Profits before tax increased $8.7 billion in the second quarter, compared with an increase of $134.6 billion in the first. The before-tax measure of profits does not reflect, as does profits from current production, the capital consumption and inventory valuation adjustments. These adjustments convert depreciation of fixed assets and inventory withdrawals reported on a tax-return, historical-cost basis to the current-cost measures used in the national income and product accounts. The capital consumption adjustment decreased $8.2 billion in the second quarter (from $115.4 billion to $107.2 billion), compared with a decrease of $89.8 billion in the first. The inventory valuation adjustment increased $56.7 billion (from -$116.0 billion to -$59.3 billion), in contrast to a decrease of $25.7 billion. * * * BEA's national, international, regional, and industry estimates; the Survey of Current Business; and BEA news releases are available without charge on BEA's Web site at www.bea.gov. By visiting the site, you can also subscribe to receive free e-mail summaries of BEA releases and announcements. * * * Next release -- September 29, 2011, at 8:30 A.M. EDT for: Gross Domestic Product: Second Quarter 2011 (Third Estimate) Corporate Profits: Second Quarter 2011 (Revised) Comparisons of Revisions to GDP Quarterly estimates of GDP are released on the following schedule: the advance estimate, based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency, is released near the end of the first month after the end of the quarter; as more detailed and more comprehensive data become available, the second and third estimates are released near the end of the second and third months, respectively. The latest estimate reflects the results of both annual and comprehensive revisions. Annual revisions, which cover the quarters of the 3 most recent calendar years, are usually carried out each summer and incorporate newly available major annual source data. Comprehensive (or benchmark) revisions are carried out at about 5-year intervals and incorporate major periodic source data, as well as improvements in concepts and methods that update the accounts to portray more accurately the evolving U.S. economy. The table below shows comparisons of the revisions between quarterly percent changes of current-dollar and of real GDP for the different vintages of the estimates. From the advance estimate to the second estimate (one month later), the average revision to real GDP without regard to sign is 0.5 percentage point, while from the advance estimate to the third estimate (two months later), it is 0.6 percentage point. From the advance estimate to the latest estimate, the average revision without regard to sign is 1.3 percentage points. The average revision (with regard to sign) from the advance estimate to the latest estimate is 0.3 percentage point, which is larger than the average revisions from the advance estimate to the second or to the third estimates. The larger average revisions to the latest estimate reflect the fact that comprehensive revisions include major improvements, such as the incorporation of BEAs latest benchmark input-output accounts. The quarterly estimates correctly indicate the direction of change of real GDP 98 percent of the time, correctly indicate whether GDP is accelerating or decelerating 74 percent of the time, and correctly indicate whether real GDP growth is above, near, or below trend growth more than three-fifths of the time. Revisions Between Quarterly Percent Changes of GDP: Vintage Comparisons [Annual rates] Vintages Average Average without Standard deviation of compared regard to sign revisions without regard to sign ____________________________________________________Current-dollar GDP_______________________________________________ Advance to second.................... 0.2 0.5 0.4 Advance to third..................... .2 .7 .4 Second to third...................... .0 .3 .2 Advance to latest.................... .4 1.2 .9 ________________________________________________________Real GDP_____________________________________________________ Advance to second.................... 0.1 0.5 0.4 Advance to third..................... .1 .6 .4 Second to third...................... .0 .2 .2 Advance to latest.................... .3 1.3 1.0 NOTE.--These comparisons are based on the period from 1983 through 2007.