ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Scott Wallace, Ph.D. Director and Editor, CBEI; Professor of Economics School of Business and Economics
The impacts of the pandemic on the economy differ greatly from typical recessions that result from the usual suspects like economic imbalances or bursting of an asset bubble. As Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has recognized, “the pandemic shock was essentially a case of a natural disaster hitting a healthy economy” (October 6, 2020).
National Economic Statistics Table 1 Key Economic Indicators 2020 Third Quarter
% ∆ Yr. Ago 1.72% -1.97% -7.30% 1.36%
Nominal Gross Domestic Product (in Trillions) Real Gross Domestic Product (in Billions) Industrial Production (2012 = 100) Consumer Price Index (1982 - 84 = 100)
$21.16
18,583.99
101.50 260.28
Description: • Nominal Gross Domestic Product (in Billions): The dollar value of all final goods and services produced in a year, using current prices • Real Gross Domestic Product (in Billions): The dollar value of all final goods and services produced in a year, using prices from a base year (2012) to adjust for inflation. • Industrial Production Index: Measures the changes in the volume of output (as a percentage of actual output in 2012) produced in the United States in manufacturing, mining, and electric & gas utilities. • Consumer Price Index: Measures the average monthly change in the price of a representative basket of goods and services bought by consumers Analysis: • The Third Quarter Real GDP number indicates that the economy is approximately 2% smaller than it was a year ago. This is certainly an improvement of where we were in the second quarter. See Table 2. • The Industrial Production Index number fell 109.5 to 101.5, a 7.3% drop over the last year.
Central Wisconsin Report - Fall 2020
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