regularly measure changes in
Australia’s production of goods and
services.Want to assess whether we are
better or worse off in regards to living
standards
Types of
productive
activity and
their
measurement
measuring productive activity is
difficult and inaccurate
Two types
economic activity
non market activity
Economic Activity
GDP measures this
estimate level of economic activity.
Represents total annual value ($) of
goods and services produced by a nation.
measured annually or quarterly
GDP needs to be adjusted accordingly because
prices increase and decrease regularly
Real value of GDP is known as
chain value GDP but this is still far
from accurate
C.V GDP = guesses the value of some products. Quality of the product
is also difficult to value and therefore aren't really considered in GDP
GDP gives no indication of how goods and services are
produced and shared. No allowance allocated to hours taken to
make the product or the size of labour force.
Non-market Activity
Define: production that is not actually sold and occurs mostly
within individual households, such as personal houseworks
and gardening, or the black market.
often ignored. Isn't included in real GDP
the output of goods aren’t actually sold and its value
is to difficult to measure
not included in GDP it is not taking into a full
productive capacity
Indicators of
economic activity
Many other types of
indicators apart form
GDP.
three main categories
1 - Lagging indicator of
economic activity
Define: changes in economic activity some
time after the event has occurred because
they take time to respond.
Do not tell us what is happening currently
eg) GDP [only tells us what
happened in the past 3 months]
other e.g.) unemployment rates, CPI or inflation rates and
changes in weekly earnings.
2 - Coincident indicators of
economic activity
Move very closer with
actual changes in level
of economic activity
Published in short intervals
and tell us what is happening
right now.
Monthly changes in retail
sales is an example
3 - Leading indicators
Define: allow economic forecasts or
predictions to be made about the likely
future level of economic activity
Not completely reliable they forecast
events in the future
eg) business confidence index, new housing
approvals, changes in economic activity of
our trading partners.
Looking for patterns in
indicators of economic
activity
examining indicators involves looking at long
term trends, short term cycles, seasonal factors
and erratic behaviour or swings
Four types of patterns
1- Long term trend patterns
10 year or longer period of time
the average direction of economic activity is rising
Used for comparison
2- Cyclical patterns
statistics plotted over a period of time and follow a
fairly regular wave where there are peaks and
troughs.
Normal behaviour of GDP, unemployment, inflation and
the current account deficit.
3- Season patterns
Economic activity could move in a similar
direction during same months each year
Applies to Seasonal unemployment
Soft drinks and ice creams up in summer
4- Erratic patterns
No real pattern for
economic activity
Reaction to a once off event such as the
Olympics and 9/11 attacks