INSEAD Library

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Guide to Economic Indicators Making Sense of Economcis Contents List of tables List of charts 1 Interpreting economic indicators 2 Essential mechanics 3 Measuring economic activity Omissions Output, expenditure and income Prices Putting it in context Reliability 4 Growth: trends and cycles Nominal GDP GDP per head Real GDP GDP: output GDP: expenditure Productivity Cyclical or leading indicators 5 Population, employment and unemployment Population Labour or workforce Employment Unemployment and vacancies 6 Fiscal indicators Public expenditure Government revenues Budget balance, deficit, surplus National debt; government or public debt 7 Consumers Personal income, disposable income Consumer and personal expenditure, private consumption Personal and household savings; savings ratio Consumer confidence 8 Investment and savings Fixed investment and GDFCF viii x 1 12 28 30 32 38 39 40 41 43 45 46 49 50 51 54 58 59 61 64 66 71 72 76 79 83 85 86 88 92 94 96 98 Investment intentions Stocks (inventories) National savings, savings ratio 9 Industry and commerce Business conditions; indices and surveys Industrial and manufacturing production Capacity use and utilisation Manufacturing orders Motor vehicles Construction orders and output Housing starts, completions and sales Wholesale sales or turnover, orders and stocks Retail sales or turnover, orders and stocks 10 The balance of payments Accounting conventions Imports of goods and services Exports of goods and services Trade balance, merchandise trade balance Current-account balance ' Capital- and financial-account flows International investment position (IIP) Official reserves External debt, net foreign assets 11 Exchange rates Nominal exchange rates Special drawing rights (SDRs) EMU, ecu, ERM and euro Effective exchange rates Real exchange rates; competitiveness Terms of trade 12 Money and financial markets Money supply, money stock, Mo ... M5, liquidity Bank lending, advances, credit, consumer credit Central bank policy rates Interest rates; short-term and money-market rates Bond yields Yield curves, gaps and ratios Real interest rates and yields Share prices and yields 102 103 105 108 110 112 115 117 119 120 122 124 125 127 127 131 136 138 141 144 144 145 146 148 150 154 157 160 162 165 167 168 173 174 176 179 181 184 185 13 Prices and wages Price indicators Gold price Oil prices Commodity price indices Export and import prices; unit values Producer and wholesale prices Surveys of price expectations Wages, earnings and labour costs Unit labour costs Consumer or retail prices Consumer or private expenditure deflators GDP deflators Appendix: Useful websites Index 187 190 193 195 197 205 206 209 210 213 214 218 219 221 225