# what is the difference between real gdp and nominal gdp (1 point)

Modification, adaptation, and original content. Figure 2. Measure exchange rates Nominal versus Real GDP Nominal: Measured in current dollars Real: adjusted for inflation. As a result, nominal GDP could inaccurately report true growth when compared year to year. By contrast, when inflation drives nominal GDP up, there may be no effect on jobs and the standard of living. The growth rate (percentage increase) is, $\frac{182}{2000}=.091\text{ or }9.1\%$. Real GDP and nominal GDP are both very important calculations made to understand the strength of a country’s economy. Similarly, nominal GDP in 2016 is measured using 2016 prices. That’s why real GDP is often described as being based on “constant dollars” or “year one dollars”. Why does the distinction between real and nominal GDP matter? Did you have an idea for improving this content? Now suppose our apply economy from above now produces two goods: apples and xylophones. In other words, nominal GDP is the value of output produced: $\text{Nominal Value of Output}=\text{Price}\times\text{Quantity of Output}$. If you do not know the inflation rate, it is difficult to figure out if a rise in GDP is due mainly to a rise in the overall level of prices or to a rise in quantities of goods produced. In this lesson summary review and remind yourself of the key terms and calculations used in calculating real and nominal GDP. Another way to explore the real value of a good is to compare the prices of goods as percentages of hourly wages across time, as shown in Figure 2. Thus, real GDP in year one is, $\text{real GDP}_\text{year 1}=\text{Price of apples}_\text{year 1}\times\text{Quantity of apples}_\text{year 1}+\text{Price of xylophones}_\text{year 1}\times\text{Quantity of xylophones}_\text{year 1}$, $\text{real GDP}_\text{year 2}=\text{Price of apples}_\text{year 1}\times\text{Quantity of apples}_\text{year 2}+\text{Price of xylophones}_\text{year 1}\times\text{Quantity of xylophones}_\text{year 2}$. This conclusion comes from the simple growth rate formula (or percentage change formula): (Final GDP – Initial GDP) / Initial GDP = Growth of Nominal GDP. Thus, nominal GDP inflates the actual quantity of goods and services produced (i.e. GDP Chapter 7 Gross Domestic Product GDP is the total market value of a country’s output. Nominal GDP differs from real GDP in that it does not account for the effects of inflation or deflation. transcript for “Real GDP and nominal GDP | GDP: Measuring national income | Macroeconomics | Khan Academy” here (opens in new window), https://cnx.org/contents/vEmOH-_p@4.44:O3I2vr0L@7/Adjusting-Nominal-Values-to-Re, https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/macroeconomics/gdp-topic/real-nominal-gdp-tutorial/v/real-gdp-and-nominal-gdp, CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, https://cnx.org/contents/vEmOH-_p@4.44:q0M-qJRG@7/Tracking-Real-GDP-over-Time, Explain and demonstrate the difference between nominal and real GDP. Here’s the thing: most data are collected in nominal terms, but generally it is real measurements that are more important. The nominal value of any economic statistic means that we measure the statistic in terms of actual prices that exist at the time. Suppose we choose the set of prices from year one. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total market value of all of the goods and services provided from within the borders of a country during a set time period. Thus, the main difference between nominal and real values is the changes in the market price level. (If you’re thinking “What else would it be,” be patient.) The deflator is a figure produced based on the rate of inflation. U.S. Nominal GDP, 1960–2010. When real GDP increases, we tend to have more jobs and more goods and services to consume. So. For this reason, real data are sometimes described as “constant dollars” or “2015 dollars.” Thus, if you look at a table or graph of economic data and the label says “billions of 2015 dollars,” you know that you’re looking at real data. To compare these GDPs in dollars, you can look at Year Two’s output using Year One’s dollar amount. This data is also reflected in the graph shown in Figure 1. Watch this video to review the differences and the need for differentiating between real and nominal GDP. For example, nominal GDP in 2015 is measured as the quantity of each final good and service produced in 2015 times the price at which it was sold in 2015. Now compare this with the growth in the value of apples: $\frac{1200-1000}{1000}=\frac{200}{1000}=0.20\text{ or }20\%$. Looking at economic statistics without considering inflation is like looking through a pair of binoculars and trying to guess how close something is: unless you know how strong the lenses are, you cannot guess the distance very accurately. This article looks at, 1. GDP in year one is $1000 and the GDP in year two is$1200. � This is because of inflation. We know that the value of apple production increased, but we want to determine the extent to which we are producing more apples (i.e. In sum, nominal GDP was $1000 in year one and$1200 in year two, while real GDP was 2000 lbs of apples in year one and 2182 lbs in year two. Modification, adaptation, and original content. Select one: True False. True. In this section, you will develop a deeper understanding of GDP as you learn how it is measured, both including and excluding the effects of inflation. Consider the following data on nominal GDP and real GDP (values are in billions of dollars): Year Nominal GDP Real GDP 1997 $8,318$8,159 1998 $8,790$8,516 1999 $9,299$8,876 T,F: The GDP deflator for 1998 equals 103.2. In other words, prices in 1990 were different from prices in 2008. The same quantity of things just cost more. The country’s inflation level is currently at 2%. Table 1 shows U.S. GDP at five-year intervals since 1960 in nominal dollars; that is, GDP measured using the actual market prices prevailing in each stated year. On this page, we explore this challenging, but important, distinction in more depth. Nominal GDP is the measure of the annual production of goods or services at the current price whereas Real GDP is the measure of the annual production of goods or services calculated at actual price without considering the effect of Inflation and hence Nominal Gross Domestic Product is considered a more apt measure of GDP. Remember that we’re using price here as a common denominator to enable us to “add” quantities of apples and xylophones together. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total market value of all of the goods and services provided from within the borders of a country during a set time period. In the last section, we introduced the difference between real measurements and nominal measurements of the same economic statistic. Let’s read on to look at the details of how we convert from one to the other. d d @ ��� ������ @@  �� � � �h 0 $Nominal GDP is calculated using the following equation: Where:C – Private consumptionI – Gross investmentG – Government investmentX – ExportsM – ImportsFor example, if a country reports$ The Real Cost of Consumer Items. We can choose the prices from any year as long as we use them with each year’s quantities. When you hear reports of a country’s GDP that don’t specify the type, it's likely to be nominal GDP. When businesses need to produce more goods and services, they typically need to hire more workers, which means incomes are up. It is the market value of all final goods and services produced within a given period of time by factors of production located within a country. In other words, we compute real GDP in every year using the prices that existed in a single year, in this case year 1. Nominal output is the value of what’s produced, while real output is the quantity of what’s produced (in the previous case, pounds of apples). The most important difference between nominal and real gdp is that Nominal GDP is the GDP without the effects of inflation or deflation whereas you can arrive at Real GDP, only after giving effects of inflation or deflation. Because this measurement is independent from prices and therefore inflation, it estimates the real cost of goods and services. Nominal GDP values have risen exponentially from 1960 through 2010, according to the BEA. A gallon of whole milk would cost 9 minutes of work, and a gallon of gas would cost 6 minutes. We can do the same calculation for year two: $\frac{1200}{0.55}=2182\text{ lbs of apples in year two}$, The difference in the number of apples produced is 182 lbs. Thus, nominal GDP increased by $1000 (the increase)/$2000 (the nominal GDP in year one)= 50%. These nominal and real value concepts play a vital role in economics as these two concepts similarly represent in interest rates in the forms of nominal interest rate and real interest rate / GDP etc. Nominal GDP = ∑ ptqtwhere p refers to price, q is quantity, and t indicates the year in question (usually the current year).However, it can be misleading to do an apples-to-apples comparison of a GDP of $1 trillion in 2008 with a GDP of$200 billion in 1990.