What are the items that are included in GDP in different countries?

Question

Do all countries follow the same rule, I know in Bangladesh they included "services" to count GDP, so GDP rises hence per capita income also.
In GDP calculation do the countries include personal income , like salary also? I want to know detail. Also I would like to have a website specifically on this.

Answer 1

The definition of GDP is agreed internationally by countries at the United Nations, IMF and OECD. You can measure GDP several ways. The simplest is to add consumer spending, government spending, business investment and exports and subtract imports. This gives the well known equation GDP = C+I+G+X-M. Each of these components measures both goods and services. For example, a hair cut is counted as consumer spending, even though it is a service rather than a good.

The 'circular flow of money' means that total spending equals total income (since each time you spend $1, someone else receives $1 in income). Therefore, you can also measure GDP by adding up all of the income across the economy. This gives
GDP = wages and salaries + business profits + net indirect taxes

Therefore, both services and salary are included in GDP, but sepearately to calculate both ways. This allows statisticians to cross-check their estimates since they should come out the same (in practice there are small differences due to measurement errors, but not not usually enough to matter in countries where the data is good quality- things might be more problematic in developing countries like Bangladesh).

You might also be interested to know that there is a third way of estimating GDP since total spending in an economy adjusted for trade must equal how much an economy produces. Therefore, statisticians can also cross check the other two estimates my adding together all of the production across an economy since conceptually this should give the same result.

My answer to this other question and the links I gave might also help you.

Answer 2

"The international standard for measuring GDP is contained in the book System of National Accounts (1993), which was prepared by representatives of the International Monetary Fund, European Union, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations and World Bank. The publication is normally referred to as SNA93.

SNA93 sets out a set of rules and procedures for the measurement of national accounts. The standards are designed to be flexible, to allow for differences in local statistical needs and conditions."