Friday, February 20, 2009

A few (seemingly forgotten) basic characteristics of the US economy

1) The US economy is more of a services economy than a products economy.In 2008, services totaled $ 6139.8 b out of the GDP of $14264.4 b, which is 43.04% of GDP.Durable goods were $ 944.40 b and non durable goods were $ 2846 b, giving a total of only 26.57% of GDP for goods altogether.
2) Services exports from the US are more than services imports, and the US has a trade surplus in the services category.Services exports were $551 b and imports were 407 b, giving a surplus of $144 b or so, which tho isn;t a major percentage of GDP.
3) Trade deficit is a small percentage of GDP for the US: The overall trade deficit including goods and services was $ 529 b in 2008 (according to above NIPA tables). (I noticed another table in which the non seasonally adjusted balance for 2008 overall is -$677 b). Overall, the US trade deficit is only 3.71% of GDP.
4) The goods deficit is insignficant in comarison to the total size of the US economy. For 2008, the goods deficit is around $ 821 b, which is around 5.76% of the US economy.
5) In 2008, Government consumption expenditures and gross investment (including Federal, State, local, defense, etc) totaled $ 2914.9 b. The US Government is therefore ~20.43% of the US economy.
Link to BIPA tables

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