Definition

What does gross domestic product mean? "Gross" signifies that no deduction has been made for the depreciation of machinery, buildings and other capital products used in production. "Domestic" means that it refers to production by the resident institutional units of each country. As many products are used to produce other products, GDP measures production in terms of value added.

GDP can be measured in three different ways: as output less intermediate consumption (i.e. value added) plus taxes on products (such as VAT) less subsidies on products; as income earned from production, obtained by summing employee compensation, the gross operating surplus of enterprises and government, the gross mixed income of unincorporated enterprises and net taxes on production and imports (VAT, payroll tax, import duties, etc, less subsidies); or as final expenditure on the goods and services produced, obtained by summing final consumption expenditures, gross fixed capital formation, changes in inventories and exports less imports.

For more statistics on economic, environmental and social issues visit online the OECD Factbook 2010.