Update on the quarterly national accounts: The components of aggregate demand

The national accounts can be analyzed in three different dimensions. Each is of interest, because each tells a story about the structure of the economy. These three dimensions are: (1) value added from the production side, (2) value added from the aggregate demand side and (3) value added from the income side. Let's have a look.

Gross domestic product from the production side is normally how GDP is measured in the first place. The authorities take measurements from many different angles and from all sectors in the economy and ask them, in essence: How much did you produce in this quarter or in this year? Thus, the agricultural sector and the mining sector, industry, tourism, health and the panoply of sectors operating in the economy will provide data on how much they produced, measured in terms of value added (we need not enter into technical details here how this is done)....