Data for the Classroom from
Ed Dolan’s Econ Bloghttp://dolanecon.blogspot.com/US GDP: Private Economy Grows 2.8% in Q1 2012,Government Continues to Shrink Posted April 28, 2012 Terms of Use: These slides are made available under Creative Commons License Attribution—Share Alike 3.0 . You are free to use these slides as a resource for your economics classes together with whatever textbook you are using. If you like the slides, you may also want to take a look at my textbook, Introduction to Economics, from BVT Publishers.

Q1 GDP Grows at 2.2
percent, Private Sector at 2.8% US GDP growth slowed to 2.2% in Q1 2012, down from 3% in Q4 2011, according to the advance estimate from the BEA The private sector grew at 2.8% It was the 11th consecutive quarter of growth The advance estimate is based on partial data and is often substantially revised Posted April 28, 2012 on Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog http://dolanecon.blogspot.com

Expansion Continues According to standard
business cycle terminology, the recession phase of the business cycle is the downward movement of GDP from its previous peak The recovery phase is the upward movement from the trough (low point) of the recession and continues until GDP again reaches its previous peak. Once GDP moves above its previous peak, the expansion phase begins. Q1 2012 GDP was solidly above pre- recession peak, continuing the expansion that the economy entered in Q3 2011 Posted April 28, 2012 on Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog http://dolanecon.blogspot.com

Sources of US GDP Growth
in Q3 2011 Table shows the contribution of each sector to the 2.2% total Consumption contributed 2.04 percentage GDP growth in Q1 2012 points to Q1 growth, up from 1.47 in Q4 Investment slowed, but inventory investment accounted for much less of the total in Q1 than in Q4 Government spending continued its steady decline, led by defense cuts; state and local government spending also fell Export growth contributed .73 percentage points, up from .37 in Q4. Net exports were flat Posted April 28, 2012 on Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog http://dolanecon.blogspot.com

Government Continues to ShrinkPosted April
28, 2012 on Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog http://dolanecon.blogspot.com

Nominal GDP A Little Above
Trend, Gap Remains Large Q1 nominal GDP (NGDP) growth was 3.8% (quarterly growth stated as annual rate), the same as in Q4 NGDP growth consisted of 2.2% real growth and 1.6% inflation An increasing number of economists focus on NGDP growth as a key policy target. Real potential GDP growth has averaged about 2.3 percent over the past 10 years. Adding 2 percent for the Fed’s target rate of inflation gives 4.3 percent. NGDP targeters could thus make a case for a more stimulative policy Posted April 28, 2012 on Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog http://dolanecon.blogspot.com