Economic Indicators

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ECONOMICS

Economics

It is the study of how the forces of supply and demand allocate scarce resources. Subdivided into microeconomics, which examines the behavior of firms, consumers and the role of government; and macroeconomics, which looks at inflation, unemployment, industrial production, and the role of government.

Microeconomics

It is the study of the behavior of small economic units or specific subgroup such as that of individual consumers or households.

Macroeconomics

It is the study of the behavior of an economy at the aggregate level, as opposed to the level of a specific subgroups or individuals (which is called microeconomics). For example, a macroeconomist might consider the industrial sector, the services sector or the farm sector, but he/she will not consider specific parts of any of these sectors. Factors studies include inflation, unemployment, and industrial production, often with the aim of studying the effect of government policy on these factors.

Economic indicator

It indicates the statistical data that shows general trends in the economy.

Those with predictive value are leading indicators; those occurring at the same time as the related economic activity are coincident indicators; and those that only become apparent after the activity are lagging indicators.

Examples are unemployment, housing starts, Consumer Price Index, industrial production, bankruptcies, GDP, stock market prices, money supply changes, and housing starts.

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

Gross Domestic Product is the total market value of all the final goods and services produced within a nation's borders in a given time period. Each goods and services produced and brought in the market has a price. The price of the total output is called as GDP. It can be measured by either cumulating all the income earned in the economy or all the spending in the economy and both measures should roughly equate to the same total.