Gross Domestic Product

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of the monetary value of all output (or production) by all firms, non-profit institutions, government bodies and households in a country for a specific timeperiod.

A distinction is made between nominal and real GDP. Nominal GDP measures output at current prices, whereas real GDP keeps prices constant. The relative change in real GDP is an important indicator of the performance of a countries economy and in media reports is often simply referred to as 'economic growth'.