In addition to updated fourth-quarter projections, today’s announcement includes revised third-quarter 2021 wages and salaries, personal taxes, and government social insurance contributions, all based on new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program. Wages and wages climbed by $306.8 billion in the third quarter, up $27.7 billion from the previous estimate. With the addition of this new statistics, real gross domestic income is now anticipated to have climbed 6.4 percent in the third quarter, a 0.6 percentage point gain over the prior estimate.
GDP for 2021
In 2021, real GDP climbed by 5.7 percent, unchanged from the previous estimate (from the 2020 annual level to the 2021 annual level), compared to a 3.4 percent fall in 2020. (table 1). In 2021, all major components of real GDP increased, led by PCE, nonresidential fixed investment, exports, residential fixed investment, and private inventory investment. Imports have risen (table 2).
PCE increased as both products and services increased in value. “Other” nondurable items (including games and toys as well as medications), apparel and footwear, and recreational goods and automobiles were the major contributors within goods. Food services and accommodations, as well as health care, were the most significant contributors to services. Increases in equipment (dominated by information processing equipment) and intellectual property items (driven by software as well as research and development) partially offset a reduction in structures in nonresidential fixed investment (widespread across most categories). The rise in exports was due to an increase in products (mostly non-automotive capital goods), which was somewhat offset by a drop in services (led by travel as well as royalties and license fees). The increase in residential fixed investment was primarily due to the development of new single-family homes. An increase in wholesale commerce led to an increase in private inventory investment (mainly in durable goods industries).
In 2021, current-dollar GDP climbed by 10.1 percent (revised), or $2.10 trillion, to $23.00 trillion, compared to 2.2 percent, or $478.9 billion, in 2020. (tables 1 and 3).
In 2021, the price index for gross domestic purchases climbed 3.9 percent, which was unchanged from the previous forecast, compared to 1.2 percent in 2020. (table 4). Similarly, the PCE price index grew 3.9 percent, which was unchanged from the previous estimate, compared to a 1.2 percent gain. With food and energy prices excluded, the PCE price index grew 3.3 percent, unchanged from the previous estimate, compared to 1.4 percent.
Real GDP grew 5.6 (revised) percent from the fourth quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2021 (table 6), compared to a fall of 2.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020.
From the fourth quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2021, the price index for gross domestic purchases climbed 5.6 percent (revised), compared to 1.4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020. The PCE price index grew 5.5 percent, unchanged from the previous estimate, versus a 1.2 percent increase. The PCE price index grew 4.6 percent excluding food and energy, which was unchanged from the previous estimate, compared to 1.4 percent.
What is the GDP of the United States in 2020?
The rise in exports was mostly due to a rise in goods (led by industrial supplies and materials). Nonresidential fixed investment increased as a result of increases in all components, headed by equipment. Spending on services (headed by health care) accounted for more than half of the growth in PCE; spending on products fell (led by food and beverages). The rise in residential fixed investment was mostly due to new single-family house construction. The rise in private inventory investment was principally driven by increases in manufacturing and wholesale trade, which were partially offset by a drop in retail commerce.
In the fourth quarter, current dollar GDP climbed by 6.0 percent on an annual basis, or $309.2 billion, to $21.48 trillion. GDP climbed by 38.3 percent, or $1.65 trillion, in the third quarter (tables 1 and 3). The Key Source and Data Assumptions file on BEA’s website has more information on the source data that underpins the estimates.
In the fourth quarter, the price index for gross domestic purchases grew 1.7 percent, compared to 3.3 percent in the third quarter (table 4). The PCE price index rose 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to 3.7 percent in the previous quarter. The PCE price index climbed 1.4 percent excluding food and energy expenses, compared to 3.4 percent overall.
In the fourth quarter, current-dollar personal income fell $339.7 billion, compared to $541.5 billion in the third quarter. Personal current transfer receipts (notably, government social benefits related to the winding down of CARES Act pandemic relief programs) and proprietors’ income, which were partly offset by increases in compensation and personal income receipts on assets, more than offset the decrease in personal income (table 8).
In the fourth quarter, disposable personal income fell $372.5 billion, or 8.1 percent, compared to $638.9 billion, or 13.2 percent, in the third quarter. Real disposable personal income fell by 9.5 percent, compared to 16.3 percent in the previous quarter.
In the fourth quarter, personal savings totaled $2.33 trillion, compared to $2.83 trillion in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the personal saving rate (savings as a proportion of disposable personal income) was 13.4 percent, down from 16.0 percent in the third quarter. “Effects of Selected Federal Pandemic Response Programs on Personal Income” provides more details on the elements that influence quarterly personal income and savings.
In 2020, real GDP fell 3.5 percent (from the 2019 annual level to the 2020 annual level), compared to a 2.2 percent growth in 2019. (table 1).
PCE, exports, private inventory investment, nonresidential fixed investment, and state and local government decreased real GDP in 2020, partially offset by increases in federal government spending and residential fixed investment. Imports are down (table 2).
A drop in services more than compensated for the decrease in PCE in 2020. (led by food services and accommodations, health care, and recreation services). The drop in exports was due to a drop in both services (driven by travel) and goods (mainly non-automotive capital goods). Private inventory investment fell as a result of broad losses in retail trade (mostly auto dealers) and wholesale trade (mainly durable goods industries). Structures (dominated by mining exploration, shafts, and wells) and equipment (headed by transportation equipment) decreased in nonresidential fixed investment, which was partly offset by an increase in intellectual property products (more than accounted for by software). The drop in state and local government spending corresponded to a drop in consumer spending (led by compensation).
The increase in federal spending was due to an increase in non-defense consumer spending (led by an increase in purchases of intermediate services that supported the processing and administration of Paycheck Protection Program loan applications by banks on behalf of the federal government). Increases in upgrades, as well as brokers’ commissions and other ownership transfer costs, accounted for the majority of the increase in residential fixed investment.
In 2020, current-dollar GDP fell 2.3 percent, or $500.6 billion, to $20.93 trillion, compared to a 4.0 percent, or $821.3 billion, growth in 2019. (tables 1 and 3).
In 2020, the price index for gross domestic purchases climbed by 1.2 percent, compared to 1.6 percent in 2019. (table 4). In 2020, the PCE price index climbed 1.2 percent, compared to 1.5 percent in 2019. The PCE price index grew 1.4 percent excluding food and energy expenses, compared to 1.7 percent overall.
Real GDP fell 2.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020, according to data (table 6). In comparison, in 2019 there was a 2.3 percent gain.
The price index for gross domestic purchases grew 1.3 percent in 2020, as assessed from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020. In comparison, in 2019 there was a 1.4 percent gain. The PCE price index climbed by 1.2 percent, compared to a 1.5 percent increase in the previous quarter. The PCE price index grew 1.4 percent excluding food and energy, compared to 1.6 percent overall.
A Technical Note that is issued with the news release on BEA’s website contains information on the source data and important assumptions utilized for unavailable source data in the advance estimate. For each release, a thorough Key Source Data and Assumptions file is also available. See the “Additional Information” section below for more information on GDP updates.
How much debt does America have?
“Parties in power have built up the deficit through increased spending and poorer tax collection, regardless of political affiliation,” says Brian Rehling, head of Global Fixed Income Strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
While it’s easy to suggest that a specific president or president’s administration led the federal deficit and national debt to move in a given direction, it’s crucial to remember that only Congress has the power to pass legislation that has the greatest impact on both figures.
Here’s how Congress responded during four major presidential administrations, and how their decisions affected the deficit and national debt.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
FDR served as the country’s last four-term president, guiding the country through a series of economic downturns. His administration spanned the Great Depression, and his flagship New Deal economic recovery plan aided America’s rebound from its financial abyss. The expense of World War II, however, contributed nearly $186 billion to the national debt between 1942 and 1945, making it the greatest substantial rise to the national debt. During FDR’s presidency, Congress added $236 billion to the national debt, a rise of 1,048 percent.
Ronald Reagan
Congress passed two major tax cuts during Reagan’s two administrations, the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 and the Tax Reform Act of 1986, both of which reduced government income. Between 1982 and 1990, Congress passed Acts that reduced revenue as a percentage of GDP by 1.7 percent, resulting in a revenue shortfall that contributed to the national debt rising 261 percent ($1.26 trillion) during his presidency, from $924.6 billion to $2.19 trillion.
Barack Obama
The Obama administration oversaw both the Great Recession and the recovery that followed the collapse of the mortgage market throughout his two years in office. The Economic Stimulus Act of 2009, which pumped $831 billion into the economy and helped many Americans avoid foreclosure, was passed by Congress in 2009. When passed by a strong bipartisan vote, congressional tax cuts added extra $858 billion to the national debt. During Obama’s two terms in office, Congress increased the national deficit by 74% and added $8.6 trillion to the national debt.
Donald Trump
Congress approved the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, slashing corporate and personal income tax rates, during his single term. The cuts, which were seen as a bonanza for the wealthiest Americans and corporations at the time of their passage, were expected by the Congressional Budget Office to increase the government deficit by $1.9 trillion at the time of their passing.
The federal deficit climbed from $665 billion in 2017 to $3.13 trillion in 2020, despite the Treasury Secretary’s prediction that the tax cuts would reduce it. Some of the rise was due to tax cuts, but the majority of the increase was due to successive Covid relief programs.
The public’s share of the federal debt has risen from $14.6 trillion in 2017 to more than $21 trillion in 2020. The national debt is made up of public debt and intragovernmental debt (amounts owed to federal retirement trust funds such as the Social Security Trust Fund). It refers to the amount of money owed by the United States to external debtors such as American banks and investors, corporations, people, state and municipal governments, the Federal Reserve, and foreign governments and international investors such as Japan and China. The money is borrowed in order to keep the United States running. Treasury banknotes, notes, and bonds are included. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), US savings bonds, and state and local government series securities are among the other holders of public debt.
“The national debt is growing at a rate it hasn’t seen in decades,” says James Cassel, chairman and co-founder of Cassel Salpeter, an investment bank. “This is the outcome of the basic principle of spending more money than you earn.” Cassel also points out that while both major political parties have spoken seriously about reducing the national debt at times, discussions and strategies have stopped.
When both sides pose discussing raising the debt ceiling each year, the national debt is more typically utilized as a bargaining chip. The United States would default on its debt obligations if the debt ceiling was not raised. As a result, Congress always votes to raise the debt ceiling (the maximum amount of money the US government may borrow), but only after parties have reached an agreement on other legislation.
When did we surpass the United Kingdom?
An intruder with two pistols barged into the Long Island estate of America’s most influential banker, J.P. Morgan, Jr., on July 3, 1915. The attacker was eventually defeated in the ensuing scuffle, but not before wounding Morgan twice in the thigh.
The gunman was revealed to be a former Harvard German instructor who had set off a bomb at the United States Capitol the day before. The attack on Morgan appeared to be part of a larger German campaign to limit American support for the Allied armies of Britain and France in the Great War, despite the lack of a direct link to the German government.
The United States was not offering military assistance at the time. America was still politically neutral in 1915. It was not, however, economically neutral, having provided financial support to the Allies from the beginning of the conflict. As the war progressed, the British and French found themselves in need of greater and larger loans to stay afloat. Morgan was the one who was most eager to deliver it. He would eventually obtain a $500 million line of credit for the French and British, the largest foreign loan in Wall Street history, as a passionate anglophile.
Morgan, on the other hand, lived, and the battle went on, fueled by American funds and supplies. Morgan worked as a purchasing agent, assisting in the monthly procurement of millions of pounds of food and weaponry for the Allies.
America had been in a recession prior to the conflict, but World War I quickly ended it. Even before the United States entered the conflict, its industry had converted to military manufacturing, and its farmers were raising food to feed forces. These events signaled a significant shift in world power. According to economic historian Adam Tooze’s book The Deluge, the British Empire had been the world’s largest economic power for a century before being surpassed by the United States in 1916.
The United States had an economic stake in winning the war when it joined the Allies in April 1917. Tooze claims that “By the end of 1916, American financiers had staked $2 billion on an Entente triumph, which was a huge sum at the time.
By the time of the Washington Naval Conference in November 1921, the British, French, and Italian governments owed the American taxpayer a total of $9.8 billion. For the first time in its history, the war had turned the United States into a creditor rather than a debtor.
Unlike its European peers, who suffered tremendous casualties as well as economic and political suffering, America emerged from WWI stronger than ever. “According to Jay Winter, a Yale University history professor who appears in The Great War, “the American state was possibly the only state that truly won the First World War.” “Because they lost so much, everyone else, including the winners, lost.”
The world order had shifted dramatically, with a new superpower at its helm. From 1916, according to Tooze, “American economic strength would be the deciding element in the shaping of the world order until the turn of the twenty-first century.”
The Deluge: The Great War, America, and the Remaking of the Global Order, 19161931, by Adam Tooze (New York, New York: Viking Penguin, 2014).
Is the United States a capitalist nation?
Capitalism is an economic ideology in which private businesses control the means of production. This indicates that the economy is run by individuals rather than the government meddling with production or price. Instead, the free market determines pricing. This indicates that value is determined by supply and demand as well as the producer-consumer relationship.
Capitalism is distinct from socialism and communism, in which the government exerts strong economic control. The United States is likely the most well-known country with a capitalist economy, which many citizens regard as an important component of democracy and the realization of the “American Dream.” Capitalism also appeals to the American spirit since it is a more “free” market than government-controlled alternatives.
In 2021, which country will have the greatest GDP?
What are the world’s largest economies? According to the International Monetary Fund, the following countries have the greatest nominal GDP in the world:
Was the US economy growing in 2021?
Despite two new viral varieties that rocked the country, the US economy increased by 5.7 percent in 2021, the best full-year rate since 1984, roaring back in the pandemic’s second year.
What is Canada’s debt burden?
The federal government is primarily responsible for the increase in CGG’s net debt. In 2020, the federal net debt increased by $253.4 billion to $942.5 billion, or 42.7 percent of GDP, up from 29.8 percent in 2019. The federal government’s financial assets increased 13.2 percent to $523.5 billion, while liabilities soared 27.3 percent to $1,466.0 billion. In 2020, debt securities ($1,165 billion) and liabilities under federal employee pension schemes ($167.7 billion) accounted for 90.9 percent of total liabilities.
Despite this extraordinary increase in the government net debt-to-GDP ratio during the pandemic, the ratio (42.7 percent) is still significantly below the mid-2000s highs.
What is China’s debt to the United States?
Over the previous few decades, China has steadily increased its holdings of US Treasury securities. The Asian nation owns $1.065 trillion, or 3.68 percent, of the $28.9 trillion US national debt, more than any other foreign entity save Japan as of October 2021.
Which country is the poorest in the world?
Burundi, a small landlocked country ravaged by Hutu-Tutsi ethnic conflict and civil violence, has the terrible distinction of being the poorest country on the planet. Food scarcity is a serious concern, with almost 90 percent of its approximately 12 million residents reliant on subsistence agriculture (with the overwhelming majority of them surviving on $1.25 a day or less), and food insecurity is about twice as high as the norm for Sub-Saharan African countries. Furthermore, access to water and sanitation is still limited, and only about 5% of the population has access to electricity. Needless to say, the epidemic has worsened all of these issues.
How did things get to this point, despite the fact that the civil war officially ended 15 years ago? Infrastructure deficiencies, widespread corruption, and security concerns are all common causes of extreme poverty. In 2005, Pierre Nkurunziza, a charismatic former Hutu rebel who became president, was able to unite the country behind him and begin the process of reconstructing the economy. However, in 2015, his announcement that he would run for a third termwhich the opposition claimed was illegal under the constitutionreignited old feuds. Hundreds of people were killed in fighting, and tens of thousands were internally or externally displaced as a result of the failed coup attempt.
Nkurunziza died in the summer of 2020, at the age of 55, from cardiac arrest, while it is widely assumed that Covid-19 was the true reason. Days later, Evariste Ndayishimiye, an ex-general designated by Nkurunziza to succeed him when his term expired, was sworn in. His track record has been mixed so far. While he, like his predecessor, minimized the virus’s severity, and claims of human rights violations continue to emerge from the country, he made an effort to relaunch the economy and mend diplomatic relations with his African neighbors, particularly the West. His efforts were rewarded: the United States and the European Union recently withdrew financial restrictions imposed in the aftermath of the 2015 political turmoil, resuming aid to Burundi. Could this be a watershed moment for the world’s poorest country?