How do I calculate the economic growth in 2004 in USA? Please help.?

Question

I am trying to calculate the economic growth for 2004. Yes, this is for school. Can someone please tell me the information that I need in order to calculate the economic growth for 2004? I can figure out what to do with the information and how to calculate the growth. Please help.

Answer 1

Go to http://www.bea.gov and download this spreadsheet:

http://www.bea.gov/national/xls/gdplev.xls

In that spreadsheet, find real GDP for 2004 ($10,675.8 billion) and 2003 ($10,301.0 billion).

Then compute:

(10,675.8 / 10,301.0) - 1 = 0.036 = 3.6%

This is the economic growth (aka change in real GDP) for 2004.

Answer 2

Take the value of GIP by 2004.
Take the value of GIP by 2003.
Calculate the change by percent values.
Your calculation may be different to official figure because many GIP are estimated.
In many countries the definitive figures are gotten two years after the first estimation.